Speak no Evil
by FloatingPalace
Summary: Mari can't speak-she hasn't since the day her mother was killed by a troop of Firenation soldiers. When Katara and Sokka bring home a bald kid with an arrow on his forehead, she knows that change is coming.But will it be a change for the better?
1. In Which Mari meets a Flying Bison

Coals fizzled and hissed in the center of Mari's igloo. She'd forgotten to stoke it in the night, and the smoky heat had long since disappeared. Struggling to keep her fur pelt blanket wrapped around her bare shoulders, Mari groped for her clothing. It lay where it always did, right beside her bedroll. In record time, she managed to slip into her sealskin leggings, boots, silk jerkin and light blue jacket.

Pushing her short, jaggedly cut hair out of her face, Mari slid reluctantly out of bed and onto the icy ground to kneel beside the dying coals. Her breath formed frosty clouds in the frigid morning air. Hurriedly, she pulled a few sticks from the leather sleeve that kept fuel dry. Mari placed the sticks on the embers hurriedly, jerking away as though the fire would "leap out and gobble her all up," like the old folks of the village said when they told the children bedtime stories of the times before the war.

Before the war.

At this thought, Mari's chilly fingers rose from the ground to caress the ugly, reddened scar tissue that marred her throat. It seemed all the more vivid and distracting when compared to the milky whiteness of her skin that was rare among those of the Water Tribe.

She sat there, touching her throat with her black eyes misted over with thought, for a long while. The sticks upon the embers began to smoke, and then caught fire. A soft breeze made a hollow moaning sound through the pipelike entrance to Mari's home. The girl didn't make a sound.

Suddenly, the inhuman silence was shattered by the sound of feet, crunching loudly across the fresh-crusted snow that coated Watertribe country. Mari started and fell backwards, twisting over as she stretched out a hand to grasp a thick, dark ribbon with silver clasps at the end that was neatly folded in a small depression in the ice. As the crunching grew louder, and the sounds of someone's heavy breathing became apparent, Mari unfurled the ribbon and wrapped it around her neck. Her fingers fumbled with the individual clasps at the back that ensured it wouldn't fall or loosen. Silently, Mari cursed the difficult buttons.

"Mari, Mari, Mari!" Katara sang, ducking into the igloo with ease just as Mari finished with the clasps. "You will never guess what happened this morning…"

Mari turned and raised her eyebrows at the girl, conveying her interest with a single gesture.

Katara scuttled across the diameter of the igloo floor and pulled roughly on Mari's sleeve. "But I can't just tell you, you have to _come_!" she reached down, picked up a pair of sealskin gloves off of Mari's bedroll and tossed them emphatically at the girl. "Put those on and come see!"

Mari frowned as she pulled on the gloves and pulled on her heavier, waterproof coat. It had been months since she'd seen Katara this energetic, let alone _smiley_. Usually it was all chores, fishing and Waterbending—all duty. This sudden burst of life made Mari wonder what was going on. Perhaps Sokka had done something out of character, like do his own laundry (unlikely.), or the men were returning, or traders had come (that was crossing over the line into impossible, but Mari could dream). Whatever it was…it was something good.

Mari cocked her head.

Blinked.

Pursed her lips.

Blinked some more.

It was a little bald boy with an arrow on his head. The whole, entire reason that Katara was practically flying in the sky was a little bald boy _with and arrow on his _head. She glanced at Katara, who nodded her head happily and raised her eyebrows as if to say, _come on. Make him feel welcome._

He had a huge grin on his face, just like Sokka did whenever he got the kids together for what he referred to as "warrior's training," giddy with childish joy that seemed to emanate from him like rays from the sun. Behind baldy stood a huge, weird, furry beast-thing. The thing had an arrow on its head too. It was staring at her, and Mari did not think she liked that.

She turned again to look at Katara, who was bouncing around like a sliver of ice in the ocean. Katara looked back, stilled herself somewhat, and then cleared her throat. "His name's Aang," she said. "Sokka and I found him in an iceberg when we went fishing." She pointed across the little circle of villagers surrounding the arrow boy and his arrow beast to Sokka. He grunted at his sister.

"You mean _you_ found him. All I wanted to do was catch dinner…but _no_, little miss waterbender had to go and…" his voice trailed off into illiterate grumbling.

Aang was still smiling.

The villagers were still staring at him.

Katara was still bouncing.

Mari took a deep breath and stepped forward. Immediately the Aang child launched himself at her and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. "Do _you_ penguin sled too?" he asked.

Mari held her hands out to the sides and stared down at him. _Holy enthusiasm_, she thought incredulously. And she'd thought it couldn't get any worse than Sokka when he put on his war paint.

Katara dashed forward to tap Aang on his skinny, yellow-silk-clad shoulder. "Hey, Aang, this is Mari."

Aang released his stunned target and took a step back. He was tiny, but friendly looking, Mari thought as she looked him over. If he didn't have that idiot smile, he might turn out to be all right.

He grinned and his face crinkled up in an adorable way that reminded Mari of a Saber-Moose cub that her momma had brought home once, years ago when they still lived in the Northern Tribe. It had been so cute, fluffy, even though it'd been injured by a poachers trap. Sad, too. When Mari tried to touch it, pet it and let it know that it would be all right now, her mother had grabbed her hand.

"No," her mom had whispered gently. "You can't touch him or the poor thing's momma won't know it when we take him back. You can't touch him or he'll die."

Mari blinked. Aang stuck out his hand and nodded brightly. "I'm Aang. Nice ta meetcha!"

Mari reached out hesitantly, her mother's words still echoing in her ears—_can't touch him or he'll die_—and he grabbed onto her hand, shaking it up and down and left and right and any which way it could go. Enthusiasm was not something that Aang from the Air Temple lacked.

Finally, the shaking stopped. Aang was looking at her expectantly—for what, Mari couldn't tell.

Katara leaned forward and bumped shoulders with Mari, flashing Aang a huge smile. "Mari doesn't talk," she explained. "Never has. But she's not…dumb…or anything, you know. Mari just has her own way of making herself known. She's very special."

Mari flashed Aang a brilliant smile then, and nodded. What Katara was saying was almost word for word what her favorite old folk, Gran Gran, said to everyone who met Mari for the first time. If Katara hadn't spoken up, Mari knew that Gran Gran would have shouted it from the back of the crowd.

"Well," Aang frowned for the first time since Mari had first seen him. "That's okay. Appa can't talk either, and we understand each other just fine, don't we boy?" he glanced at the arrow-beast. It gave a muffled roar and thumped its flat tail against the snow. One of the onlookers, a little girl with fishtail braids, gave an excited gasp.

Mari cocked her head way over to the side and held up six fingers. She looked between Katara and Aang questioningly, as if to say _Excuse me. _Why_ does your beast-thing have six legs? Is that normal?_

Aang's eyes lit up and he started talking about his Flying Bison, and how the beast-thing's name was Appa and how much Appa liked to eat food and how very tired Appa was from their very long journey. He was, to Mari's relief (Aang talked fast, and she really could hardly understand what he was blabbering on about anyway. She didn't even know what a Flying Bison was. Well, except for the fact that it apparently had six legs), interrupted by one of the old folks grumping into the middle of the semicircle and asking a well-placed question.

"Excuse me, young man. Who exactly are you, again?"

"Well, I…um…" Aang hemmed and hawed. He pulled at his collar and cleared his throat.

Finally he said "I'm an airbender!"

At the same moment that Katara exclaimed "He's the boy we found in the ice!"

That started a whole other kind of hubbub and confusion. While the old folks tried to sort out what _exactly_ Katara meant by "found in the ice," and what _exactly_ Aang meant by "Airbender," Mari wandered around the Flying Bison.

Yep. It definitely had six legs.

Mari reached out and touched its flank. Its fur was soft, and warm. Looking around carefully to make sure that nobody was watching, Mari leaned forward until she was lying on the fur. _Mmm,_ she wanted to breathe. _So soft…_

And then the beast gave a hearty grumble, and startled Mari. She jumped back just as Appa rolled over onto his side and lay there, grumbling deep in his belly, and gazing at her piteously with big black eyes.

_What,_ Mari wondered, _do flying Bison eat?_


	2. In Which There Is a Bang

Uncle Iroh sipped contentedly at a steaming cup of Oolong tea. He had bought it from a merchant at the last trading outpost, and it was exquisite.

It saddened him that his nephew, Zuko, didn't share his love of Oolong. A tragedy, really. Oolong could do wonders for the mind.

There was a swoosh, crash, bang and a flash of smoke from Iroh's left. His nephew's angry voice carried and echoed in the frigid air that swept across the deck of Zuko's metal ship.

"DO IT AGAIN!" his nephew shouted angrily. There followed more swooshing, crashing, banging and yelling. Iroh sighed—day and night and day again, for the past few weeks, Zuko had been practicing. Old Firebending techniques, new ones, and a few made-up ones were the subject of this onslaught towards study.

Iroh stood up. He groaned—here, he knew, was another good teatime about to be ruined by a grumpy-gus with a mission.

He trundled around the corner of the ship captain's cabin onto a great, shining expanse of steel that served as a training area for soldiers, himself, and the prince. Zuko stood between two fully-armored soldiers, arms raised in the almost perfect stance of a Firebender on the defense.

"Zuko!" Iroh grunted, marching straight over to push one of the soldiers out of his line of sight. "Stop this nonsense, you must rest."

Prince Zuko looked as though his uncle had just requested that he dive into the ocean from the bow of the ship and hold his breath 'til he counted to a thousand.

And then he growled angrily. "I have to train."

"Too much of a good thing will make the good thing into a bad," Iroh said, stroking his beard in what he hoped was a wise manner. "But a good cup of Oolong will make everything seem clearer and brighter. Also a good night's sleep."

"I don't need sleep or tea, Uncle!" Zuko cried, flinging his arms into the air. "I need to catch the Avatar, and if I don't train then I won't be able to fight him and if I can't fight him then I won't catch him and if I don't catch him, then I can't take him home and if I can't take him home, then…" the prince's voice trailed off and he inhaled deeply. The redness of the deep scar around his eye seemed to lessen somewhat. Iroh nodded slowly. If his nephew did not bring home the Avatar—a surely impossible quest assigned him by his bastard father—then the boy could never regain what he saw as lost. His honor as the crown-prince of the Firenation.

"You must let your body rest so that you may train harder," Iroh reasoned. "It does you no good to beat yourself to death."

His words had merit. For all his unruly, over-pessimistic talk, Zuko trusted his Uncle.

"But…I have to train."

"Tonight," Iroh said firmly, "You sleep."

The prince wavered in his resolve. He took a hesitant step toward his uncle, bowing his head as though in apology for his determination.

Then, there came a huge, crackling hum. To the south, a pillar of blue light shot into the air.

"The Avatar…" Zuko breathed. Then he turned to one of the soldiers. "Tell the captain to set our course South—towards that light!"

Iroh cursed under his breath.

"You seem thoughtful," Gran Gran cackled. She sat down next to Mari with a soft _whump. _"What troubles you, child?"

Mari shook her head, and touched the corners of her mouth with her gloved fingers.

"And what is it that makes you so happy today?"

Mari bit the finger of one of her gloves and yanked it off. With one bare finger, she traced an arrow in the snow, and then made a smiley face beneath it.

"The Airbender."

Mari nodded. Aang and his pet Flying Bison had been in town for a few days only, but in those few days the gray and blues and whites of the arctic tundra seemed to have been painted with rainbows. Perhaps it was the way the children laughed, or the way it ticked Sokka off whenever Aang interrupted something he was trying to do—it was probably Sokka. Making him angry was…well, fun!—but the whole world seemed like a little bit of a happier place. Not once had the war been mentioned, or the Fire Nation. Mari rather liked living this way, as though nothing bad could happen in the world.

Gran Gran smiled. "He does have an interesting effect on the village."

More nodding came from Mari's quarter.

"Do you know where he is, by the way? The kids have been wanting to see more of his bending."

Mari drew a penguin in the snow and made a sliding motion with her hand. _Katara took him penguin sledding. He wouldn't shut up about it._

Gran Gran cackled again. The motion sent a few wisps of gray hair tumbling over her craggy face. "I seem to recall a certain little girl who loved to penguin sled, once upon a time."

Mari rolled her eyes. _Of course I did,_ she thought. _I was six._

"Don't give me that attitude. In ten years, that much hasn't changed." Gran Gran rubbed her arms and looked up at the sky. "My dear, I think it's about to."

Mari swept the snow smooth and scratched down a question mark.

"Change is inevitable, you know. That boy—Aang—he has a feel about him. I know it, and it means something new is going to happen."

At that moment, there was a loud bang. A plume of smoke rose from over the crest of one of the ice hills…but not just any ice hill. On the other side of that particular one, there was kept an old Firenation ship, encased in ice. Legend had it (legend, because no one had ever dared discover the truth) that it was booby trapped, ready to kill anyone who entered and signal for other Firenation troops if it was disturbed.

Mari looked up at the dark, twisting cloud of smoke. Gran Gran looked with her. They sat like that for several seconds, until Sokka streaked by them. He was brandishing a tomahawk and screaming like a madman.

"THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE HE—" his voice was cut off when Sokka tripped over a hunk of snow and ice that had appeared before his foot. Sokka made a graceful, silent face-plant.


	3. In Which Mari Drinks Tea

_A/N: Can I just say how freaking HAPPY you all make me? Actually, no, I want you go imagine me singing it in a funky opera voice. Because I don't sing about happiness for just anybody, and you guys deserve it! Every time I got an email this week, I just wanted to get up and hug somebody. Once, I danced a jig. No joke—the people in my journalism class were quite concerned._

_ I've had this fanfic in my head for very, very long time and when I finally got up the guts to upload it, I was more than a little nervous about whether or not people would like Mari. So just thank you for all the reviews and support! _

_ Also, I'm sorry it took me so long to get the third chapter out. Blame writer's block…ew. _

_ So now that I've babbled and probably wasted five minutes of your valuable reading time, scroll down a little, and be happy. The actual story's finally going to start_.

xXx

Soon after she had been adopted into the Southern Water Tribe, during the healing period when she was confined to bed rest on a heap of furs in the medicine tent, Mari had wanted to die. In her eight year old mind, having lost her home, her family and (very nearly) herself, there was nothing more in the world that there was to live for. No matter what the medicine woman would bring her, Mari couldn't bring herself to eat. Although her young body, save for a few scars, healed well enough, and although she was urged enthusiastically to exercise and gain strength, Mari did not stir. Instead, she lay limp on the furs, staring at the ceiling of the igloo and listening to the shallow sounds of her own breathing.

One morning, Mari had awoken to the sight of a wide eyed, chubby little girl leaning over her and poking at her face with intense curiosity. The sight so startled her that Mari sat up, suffered from a wave of dizziness and subsequently lay back down again with a very silent, very heartfelt exhalation of breath. The curious little girl asked if Mari was tired. When Mari didn't answer, the girl asked if she was thirsty and promptly spilled a bowl of water down Mari's front in an attempt to give her a drink. While the girl was trying to enthusiastically dry (it was more suffocation than anything) Mari, a couple other children had rolled into the igloo. One of them, a boy, had shouted loudly at the girl about "Katara, what are you doing here, I thought we were playing War, do you want to be a traitor?"

To which Katara had replied for Sokka to shut up and be quiet because the girl was sick (and, Mari had thought, half dead from Katara's "nursing") and she was taking care of her.

"Sick, phooey," Sokka had spat, "She's been in here forever. Anyone'd be sick if they lived in here, make her come outside if you want to play doctor." In truth, he had hated being in the medicine tent ever since the year before. It made him think of a certain Fire Nation raid which had cost him his mother.

Mari had curled up in a ball and refused to move, thinking that maybe if she pretended they weren't there, the siblings would stop arguing and leave her in peace.

Needless to say, they didn't. The next day, Sokka and Katara returned. This time, Katara brought a little doll made of seal skin and clothing scraps. Sokka brought a wooden boomerang to attack it with. Mari hadn't needed to do anything—they somehow managed to weave Mari into their own world like a singular little thread that they found particularly intriguing. The day after that, Mari sat up and listened to them talk, and the next day she scooted off of her cushioned bed and smacked Sokka weakly on the wrist when he tried to steal Katara's doll from her.

Soon, Mari was outside, drinking in the golden sunlight that flashed off of ice and beamed from the sky all around. She had found reason to live in these two siblings, loud though they were. Sokka even made her smile once or twice.

It was because of this beginning that Mari found herself sitting stoically in the brig of a Fire Nation warship, sporting a nasty bump on the back of her head. If Sokka and Katara had never adopted her into their family, she wouldn't have had anything to do with Aang the Airbender and she would never have rushed through the crowd of Water Tribe soldiers to bend a hunk of ice through the air and into the side of a Fire Nation soldier's helmet. She'd broken her promise—never bend in public, never bend when there is a chance of being seen, and never, ever bend in front of a Fire soldier—been knocked out, along with Aang (she assumed) and had awoken on a cold metal slab.

Memories of a place like this had washed over her and for a few minutes, Mari had been hard-pressed to stay focused. Screams of the past echoed in her ears as she sat, cross-legged on the floor of the cell with her hands folded together and her eyes closed.

_Picture yourself on an ice berg,_ she thought to herself. _There are gulls flying above. A breeze carries the scent of ice and there are some of those little fluffy cotton-clouds on the horizon. Breathe it in. Breathe. In. Breathe. Out. Breath. In…"_

But her hands were shaking and her breathing, as much as she might try to follow what Gran Gran had told her to do, was coming faster and more shallow by the second. Sweat beaded on her forehead and the ribbon around Mari's neck felt tight—too tight.

_Breathe in…out…in…out…_

The cell door swished open with a creak and Mari's eyes snapped open.

"I have never understood meditation myself, you know," said the man before her. He had a beard and a smile on his face. "I am more of a tea man, myself." So saying, the man extended a hand to Mari. "Please call me Uncle Iroh."

xXx

Mari watched the man warily as he poured steaming tea into a cup and slid it across the table. He was talking, telling her all about the relaxing qualities of the leaves or something. She stared down into the cup and inhaled the aromatic steam as it rose to her nostrils. Mari didn't want to admit it, but the smell was soothing. Maybe even too soothing. With a start, she turned her head back up to look at the man, Iroh. He chuckled and poured another cup for himself.

"My dear, you don't need to worry," he admonished. "I would not poison you through the art of making tea. It is too sacred, and I have no reason to want you dead."

Mari glared at him.

"Come now," he continued in a conversational tone, "If we are going to be friends, we should at least exchange names. I have told you mine—now it's your turn."

Mari pursed her lips and stared at Iroh. He stared back. Finally, Mari raised a hand and touched her throat stiffly. She shook her head and watched Iroh's eyes widen as he realized what she was trying to communicate.

"Ah."

Mari nodded.

Iroh took a hasty sip of his tea and choked on it—it was still boiling hot. Mari watched him curiously—the man didn't really fit in with the image of Fire Nation soldiers, and yet when he had ordered Mari released from the brig, one of the guards had called him "General."

Iroh pawed at his tongue and whimpered. Mari cocked her head. If this was how generals of the army behaved, then she wanted to know exactly how the Fire Nation army had been winning for so many years. Releasing prisoners and taking them to tea in the mess hall, with repeated promises of a game of Pai Sho afterwards didn't seem very strategic.

He didn't seem very threatening, either. After his mouth had cooled down, Uncle Iroh started talking—something that he was very good at. Although Mari didn't reply, whether with motions or signs, the man rambled on, chuckling to himself about his tales, half of which Mari didn't really understand. He talked about some of the soldiers that worked aboard the ship, he talked about a magnificent garden to the east of the Fire Nation palace that Emperor Aizen had built specially for the Queen, about the goddess of the moon and the god of the sun and their tragic love story…he even mentioned, once, a son that Mari guessed he had left behind somewhere.

Mari could not remain aloof. She tried—oh, she tried. But despite her determination not to react to Iroh's fascinating tales (that's not sarcasm. They were actually quite interesting) Mari found herself leaning forward curiously, biting her lip, even reaching for her tea once or twice.

Then, just as Uncle Iroh wrapped up a tale of his escapades into Ba Sing Se on spy missions (they were, he said, less about the spying and more about the fresh tea leaves), the doors burst open. Behind it stood a man. He was around Mari's age, pale and skinny with an ugly scar that ran across half his face. He was out of breath and very, _very_ angry.

"Uncle! What are you doing here!" He cried, "The Avatar's escaped and—" The man (boy?) paused and looked at Mari. Mari blinked back at him.

"What's the prisoner doing in the—"

Here, Mari did something that she wasn't particularly proud of. It wasn't heroic, it wasn't brave, but it was most definitely violent and necessary.

She picked up the steaming teapot, dove at the scarred soldier and hit him in the head with it, not hard enough to knock him out, but just enough to stun him for a few seconds. With a thankful glance in Iroh's direction, Mari ducked out the door and raced up the passageway. She could hear distant shouts and whooshing noises.

That, she assumed, would be Aang.


	4. In Which Aang Glows

_A/N__: I have an excuse. I swear I do. See, the week before last, I was out of town because it was Spring Break. Naturally, the hotel's wifi was down. I ended up getting so much sun that I became an adopted member of the Lobster family! Then, last week, I was set to compete in a dramatic reading for my French class, so I gave up all internet so that I could sit in my comfy chair and mutter Cyrano de Bergerac under my breath like a true crazy person. It was worth it—the competition had food._

_They're bad excuses… really bad ones… but hey, I finally got it up here! Hooray!_

_And since I've got your attention, I have a little (really little. Positively microscopic) request. Once you read this chapter, could you go down to the bottom of the page and click the review button? I really like to hear what you guys think of the story so far, so if you'd just take a couple minutes to write me a note, it would make my day!_

_Phew. Now that's over, you can read the story. I think this is the last chapter for setting things up (can't believe I finally made it past the second episode! Oh, the joy!) so now the REAL fun can begin… *rubs hands together* muahahaha…_

_xXx_

Mari burst onto the deck just as Aang dropped over the side of the ship.

_No!_ she screamed silently. If he was in that water for more than a few minutes, he would die of hypothermia (a word which Mari had acquired, proudly, during many hours spent in the Medicine Man's igloo). She took a step forward, stumbled on the slickery deck—in the moment before she fell onto her chilly rear, Mari wondered how in the heck anybody could keep their footing. Of course, then the not inconsiderable number of Fire Soldiers standing near the edge of the ship turned around. Saw her.

If Mari had had a voice, she would have been either swearing or… well, not much else, actually. She'd picked up some mighty fine words from traders and some of the men in the village before they'd sailed off to fight in the war, and at times she found it enormously relieving to mouth them darkly to herself. She did so now as she pushed herself back up onto her feet and readied herself for the onslaught of soldiers that would follow. Her hands were shaking, her legs felt like jelly, and she couldn't quite see straight—she had been a child when these same faceless men in uniforms had carried her off to That Place. She had been so small, weak and unable to fight.

Mari had made up her mind a long time ago that she would never allow herself that same weakness again.

Strangely enough, none of the soldiers were looking at her. They'd been distracted by something over the side of the bow. One of them asked loudly, "Hey…should the water be doing that?"

"What are you doing just _standing_ there?" Someone shouted. Mari turned her head towards the sound. The someone was none other than Uncle Iroh's nephew…whoever that was. He dashed past her- his top-knot was still dripping with tea, and as Mari squinted in his direction, she could make out a clump of tea leaves stuck to his chin. Mari couldn't help but feel a momentary burst of pride at her handiwork. She smiled. Iroh's nephew stomped across the deck, through the group of soldiers and peered over the side of the ship. There was a moment of silence.

And then Aang burst into the sky, carried by what appeared to be (Mari wasn't quite sure, at the time, whether or not she was just seeing things) a column of water.

Mari raised her eyebrows. _Airbender, my a—wait…wait, is he glowing?_

Aang was indeed. His arrow tattoos had lit up like the full moon, and his eyes practically beamed light. His clothes billowed around him in a wind that didn't blow anywhere else, and he whirled down into the midst of the soldiers, bending the water in a circle around him. The soldiers tried to back away, but they weren't fast enough. There was a faint "sploosh" noise as Aang flung the curtain of water away from himself. Soldiers tipped over, slid around the deck, knocked into one another…it was lovely chaos, all around. Iroh's nephew disappeared over the side of the ship.

Mari watched all this take place with a sort of detached interest. _Now,_ she wondered, _how ever did he do that?_

The water sloshed around on the deck for a couple minutes and then settled down. So did Aang—the invisible wind stopped blowing around him and the glowing tattoos seemed to dim. All at once, the glowing stopped altogether and he collapsed in a heap in a large puddle of water.

Mari pursed her lips and began picking over the bodies of unconscious Fire Soldiers. _I told Katara we should have given him warmer clothes, _ she huffed, _Now he's going to catch his death of a cold and It won't be _ my_ fault…_

She scooped the boy into her arms and began to pick her way to the other side of the deck. She glanced up at the sky and smiled—against the sun was outlined the profile of Appa the six-legged beastie.

xXx

"That was SO. COOL," Sokka shouted, waving his boomerang around excitedly. "Katara was all 'SWISH!' and I was all 'BANG!' and Aang was all 'GLOWY GLOWY SWISH SWISH!'"

Mari gave him a look. _Please shut up, you idiot. _she thought blandly.

Sokka glanced at her and stuck out his tongue, a face that Mari quickly reciprocated along with a light smack delivered upside his head.

"You two stop fighting," Katara said in her most grown-up voice. "Aang's trying to fly."

"Are they fighting?" Aang squeaked (his voice was so high…), "I thought Sokka was just talking. Doesn't Mari ever make any noise?" He put down Appa's reigns and crawled onto the saddle that was strapped onto the Bison's back. "Doesn't she want to talk?"

Mari lunged over and pulled at Aang's ear, making him look over in her direction. She raised her eyebrows.

_I'm right here, glow worm._

"Um…" Katara coughed, "Just 'cause she doesn't talk doesn't mean she can't…communicate…"

"Watch out, Aang," Sokka called jokingly. "She'll leave bruises!"

Aang cracked up.

xXx

Zuko swore. Loudly. Again.

"How could they have gotten away…" he muttered to himself. It was a pointless question—he knew _exactly_ how they'd gotten away. The Avatar had gone all… all Avatar-y on his soldiers and almost washed him out to sea. If he hadn't caught ahold of the anchor, who knew where he would be?

"Don't punish yourself, Zuko," his uncle said sagely (the old man was _always_ saying something in a wise tone. It grated on Zuko's nerves).

"It was my fault, Uncle. We could be going home right now if I'd only—"

"Ah, Zuko, you are such a pessimist. Look at this teacup—" Iroh held his up. "To some it may seem to be half empty. To others, half full. But in reality, the cup is always filled. It just depends on how you look at it."

Zuko slammed his head onto the table. "Stop with the metaphors, Uncle."

"Well, the Avatar may have escaped today, but on the bright side, you know what he looks like. You know how he's travelling. You know who he's travelling with…"

"I do?"

"Why, yes." Iroh raised his bushy eyebrows. "She hit you with a tea pot. Pretty little thing too—she was around your age. Very resourceful…"

"Tea pot…" Zuko sat back up. He could vaguely recall the faceless image of a black-haired girl in blue.

"Yes. My good steel—she dented it on your thick skull."

"And there were the two kids, the girl and the boy that the captain said landed on the deck…"

"Now you're thinking. You see—there is always a silver lining to the clouds."

"Uncle."

"Fine—no more metaphors."


	5. In which MonkeyAtso Rests At Last

"…"

Mari rolled over, flailing her arms for good measure. It was too warm. Someone was poking her with a stick. She did not like being poked.

There was a quiet _sploosh_ and somebody shrieked with laughter. "Hey, tell Mari not to waterbend in her sleep!"

And then they poked her and said her name some more.

Finally, she opened her eyes very, very wide. And grabbed Aang very, very quickly, holding his still-grinning face close to hers.

"Hey, guys," Aang said in a muffled voice, "she's awake!"

Mari looked him in the eyes and shook her head slowly.

"And she's MAD!"

Sokka's face appeared next to Aang's. "SHE IS?"

_I swear I'll bend you all into cute little ice statues,_ Mari thought threateningly. She had been right in the middle of a good dream—which was strange, since the entire premise of it had been that she was sitting across from Uncle Iroh and his nephew (still soaked in tea leaves and water) while they sipped tea and listened to her talk. It had been, Mari thought, the sort of dream that you wake up from and want to have a good cry afterwards just because real life doesn't have that sort of goodness in it.

She released Aang. He and Sokka danced away from her and went to hide behind Katara while Mari wriggled her way out of her sleeping bag—it was just one of Katara's old ones, because she had never really needed something to sleep on other than her lovely nest of furs in her igloo. The sleeping bag was decidedly _too_ snug, and Mari made up her mind that at the first chance she got, she would find some way to acquire a fur blanket.

Mari took so long to get out of her bag that Aang and Sokka had completely lost interest in her and were now splashing Katara with water from the river. She rolled her bag up and tossed it up onto Appa's saddle. He bellowed good-naturedly in her direction and munched quietly on some kind of droopy tree branches that hung over the river bank. She smiled.

_Where do you think Aang's going to take us today?_ She mouthed quietly—no sound came out, but knowing that the words weren't just in her head made things just a little better sometimes—_He and Katara probably decided last night, but I'll be honest…I was asleep through all of that. The only parts I heard were about Aang needing to master the elements…water, fire and earth, right? And then something about a monkey-atso. Hehe…how sleep deprived was he?_

Appa bellowed again and Mari patted his flank. _Good boy…_

"Hey, hey, Mari!" Katara called. "Come over here, I'll give you some breakfast before we go to the Southern Air Temple."

_Ahhhh…Thank you, Katara, for your weirdly specific attention to details._

Mari stumped over to take a veritable slab of seal jerky from Katara. She regarded it curiously. Seal jerky had always been one of her…least favorite foods. Her stomach growled.

xXx

"Ah, land!" Iroh took a deep breath of the smoky air that circulated sluggishly around the warf—a result of too many Fire ships docking at once. "Look at it, Zuko! Drink it in!"

Zuko ignored his uncle. They were there only until the necessary repairs could be made to his ship, and then they would be off again before the trail of the Avatar went cold.

"Zuko, Zuko, look! An authentic tea shop!" Iroh pointed enthusiastically. "Let us enter and see if they carry any seasoned Jinseng. My supply has been running low…"

"We're not here for tea leaves, you old addict," Zuko growled. Frankly, he was still feeling a little sore from the incident with the Water Tribe girl. The crew men were still laughing about his tea-leaf moustache—it was his own private decision that the next time he met that girl (whoever she was, and he _would_ find her) he would get his revenge. After capturing the Avatar and restoring his honor, of course. Nobody threw tea at Prince Zuko and got away with it…for long…

It was as Zuko mused over the revengeful things that could (hypothetically) be done to people who threw hot beverages at future emporors that a man walked around the corner. Zuko didn't notice him at first—in fact, it was not until Uncle Iroh elbowed Zuko in his ribs and nodded significantly that he recognized who—exactly—was walking in his direction.

"Commander Zhao," Iroh said calmly, "What a pleasure."

xXx

_I take it back, I take it back, I take it back…_

Mari had decided that she didn't really like six-legged Flying Bison after all. It flew too high and tilted around too much, and there was always that niggling thought in the back of her mind that kept telling her how easy it would be to fall out of the saddle and end up smooshed against the side of a mountain never to be heard from again ("heard from" being a hypothetical term).

So she sat in the middle of the saddle, lying flat on her back. It was a good solution. She felt relatively stable there.

Sokka, Katara and Aang had all crowded onto Appa's head and Aang was telling them extremely amusing stories about his life at the Southern Air Temple. He kept throwing in phrases like "When I get back," and "Wait until you meet…"

It was sad really. Gone a hundred-and-ten years and Katara hadn't the heart to tell him that in all reality, his people were probably gone, killed off in one mass genocide ordered by Fire Lord Sozin as his forces swept over the world like filthy rats...

"Mari, look!" Aang interrupted his—and Mari's—reverie. "You can see home from here."

Mari did sit up. She made her way slowly over to the front of the saddle and peeked curiously over Aang's bald little dome of a head. Could he even grow hair?

And then she saw it—the Air Temple. It was a beautiful, intricate building that looked as though it had been carved straight out of the mountainside. Even from where she sat, Mari could make out the beautiful domes, arches, and carvings that adorned the temple. The buildings, like Aang's clothes, had been painted with bright, happy colors. Little wisps of cloud clung to the temple, weaving in and out of the many spires and designs. The effect was otherworldly, and, too say the least, it took Mari's breath away. Her mouth formed a silent "O" and she leaned forward.

xXx

"So," Zhao said pleasantly as he scarfed down a mouthful of gourmet Moose-Lion. "_Prince _Zuko. How goes your search for the _Avatar_?"

Zuko gritted his teeth. "We have found nothing," he lied.

"Aww. How disappointing. You must be at your wits end." Zhao's voice was full of quiet mocking. Zuko resisted the urge to leap across the table and knock every single last tooth from the man's head. Instead, he looked across the table and replied in a voice that, although he struggled to maintain a steady tone, shook ever so slightly.

"Not particularly, Commander," he said. "We have a lot of places to look."

"Mhmm." Zhao and Iroh took simultaneous sips of Jinseng tea. Zuko did not move. The commander suppressed a maniacal grin. "Dangerous places, it seems. One does not simply _crash_ into an Earth Kingdom ship."

Uncle Iroh nodded sagely—he was actually very good at looking wise. "It was not an accident, Commander Zhao, as we have told you."

"Yes…yes, you have told me. Now, Prince, what have you heard of the war strategies of late?" the Commander's eyes glittered ruthlessly, reminding Zuko all too well of the day he had acquired his scar.

"We have been far from any war. Please, fill us in Commander."

xXx

Mari craned her head up. The buildings had looked huge from far away, but now that they actually stood on the temple grounds…well, they were enormous. Larger-than-life statues of monks jutted from the earth in strategic places, emphasizing the largeness of it all.

In the background, she heard Sokka shriek and drop to the ground with a thud. Aang cheered and floated down to the ground like a sparkly little fairy child. The effect was ruined by his whooping and dancing around like a crazy person.

Mari closed her eyes. The peace of the air—even with all three of her friends talking nonsensically in the background—was amazing. Shafts of sunlight burst through the clouds and made glittering spots on the snow drifts. She could understand how the Air Nomads had once called this place home. A breeze stirred through her hair and brushed against her skin—she had ditched her sealskin coat on Appa's saddle. It was lovely—perfect. Mari almost wanted to stay there, not moving, for the rest of her life.

Sadly, that wasn't the way things worked.

"Hey," Katara grabbed Mari's elbow and began dragging Mari forward before she'd even had a chance to open her eyes. Katara whispered, "Sokka and I, we found a Fire Nation helmet. Buried it. Didn't tell Aang." She pulled Mari through an arch and stopped. "Okay?"

Mari looked at Katara like the girl had gone insane. She made an exasperated motion towards Aang and Sokka—the boys were following close on their heels. _What do you mean you didn't tell him,_ she thought. _This was his home, you can't just hide what happened here. He deserves to know. But giving him false hope…that there might be something left…Katara, that's the worst thing in the world, to have your hope crushed. I know. You have to tell him._

"Thanks, Mari. I knew you wouldn't tell."

Katara scurried off to join Aang and Sokka. They were standing in front of a statue of a monk with a head as bald as Aang's and a swirly necklace around his neck.

"This," Aang said, pointing up at the monk, "Is Gyatso." He waved up at him. So did Sokka and Katara. For a moment, Aang stood, as if lost in thought, and then he was off again, dragging Sokka and Katara down a dark hallway.

"Come with me, there's someone I'm ready to meet."

"Does that someone have FOOD? Because, man, let me tell you, I am star…"

Sokka's voice trailed off into nothingness. Mari stood in front of Monk Gyatso's statue and touched it gently with her hand. The stone was cold and rough with the hundred years it had stood in that spot, waiting. What, Mari thought, must it have been like to wake up one morning to find the boy you had raised from infancy, the Avatar, missing. Did he search for him? Did he fight for Aang when the Fire Nation soldiers came? What love must have driven this man.

Mari bowed her head.

_Mr. Gyatso, _she thought, _If you can hear me, please listen. Your boy, Aang…the Avatar. He's alive, and well. Beyond well. He talks way too much if you ask me…but… if you are listening…I want to protect him. And help him learn whatever he needs to learn to become a great man. Not just him, of course. _Mari shifted her feet to a more comfortable position, _Katara and Sokka…but they're a given…The point is, I'm a very weak girl. You're dead, and so…you must have met at least one god. Isn't that how it works? Anyway. Talk to them for me. Ask them to give me strength so that I can give _your_ boy strength to live through his hardships. And also, ask them for him not to talk so much. It's like he never sleeps. Seriously. So, um…thanks? I guess?_

She looked up into the statue's eyes. For just a second, she could have sworn she saw a fatherly gleam in there somewhere, but then it was gone, replaced by hard stone. It was probably her imagination, but nonetheless, it gave Mari reassurance. She took a deep breath and removed her hand from the rock. She twisted her hands into the proper position for thanking an Air Nomad and bowed until her back hurt.

xXx

Zhao leaned back in his chair and waved away the soldier who had just whispered something into his ear. "So, Prince. One of your crewmen has just told me something very interesting."

Zuko felt his face redden under Zhao's cold gaze. "Oh, really?"

"Yes. It seems that you and your ship did not have an encounter with an Earth Kingdom ship after all."

"What an interesting assumption," Iroh laughed. "Where ever did you get such an idea, Commander?"

"Why, from your captain of course. He was ever so helpful."

Zuko flinched. Helpful—so they'd threatened him. He should have suspected…

"And not only that…It seems that the avatar, a mere child, and his group of little friends managed to nearly destroy your ship. You must feel so competent…ahem, it is my pleasure to tell you that you don't have to deal with these mercenary children any longer. I will be taking over the search for the Avatar."

"What?" Zuko looked up. "You're what?"

"I'm taking over, boy. You never really had any hope anyway—a banished boy looking for daddy's approval versus I, a commander with every available resource at my fingertips… well, the comparison's too much, really."

Zuko stood up, sending his cushion and his plate flying.

Iroh shook his head. "You go too far, Zhao. Stop before you pass the point of no return."

"Uncle," Zuko hissed.

"Shutting up."

Zuko took a step towards Zhao, his fists clenched at his side. "You _dare_ challenge me, Crown Prince of the Fire Nation?"

"Prince no longer," Zhao retorted, "You are nothing more than a smear of dirt on Firelord Ozai's name. A disappointment in the eyes of every. Single. Citizen. Of the Fire Nation. Accept that and be on your way."

"I AM NOT A FAILURE!" Zuko's fingers burst into flame.

"A failure with a combustible temper."

"I CHALLENGE YOU!"

"Oh, my, what a surprise."

"An Agni Kai! Then we will see who is the failure."

Zhao barked a laugh. "Dawn, then. We will fight—I cannot wait for the honor of teaching you another lesson, Prince." He swept from the room.

Zuko turned to his Uncle. "He challenged my honor."

"I know, Zuko," Iroh said sadly, "I know."

"I didn't think."

Iroh took a step forward and placed one cool hand against Zuko's face. "Just remember, my Prince, what happened the last time you let your temper get away from you."

xXx

Mari burst into a room of glowing statues.

_By the gods…_ she thought, edging around the room. "_Does everything just glow now? Is it some new mutation or…_

"AANG! AANG!"

Katara was screaming. Now that Mari was listening, she could hear the sound of a very strong wind building somewhere east of the glowy-statues. She dashed through another door on the far end of the room and left the creepy statues behind as she dashed towards Katara's shrieks.

"IT'S OKAY, AANG! YOU'RE OKAY!"

_Obviously, Katara, Aang's not okay. If he WAS okay, then he wouldn't be making a load of freaky statues glow like lanterns. I'm not sure, but I think MAKING THINGS GLOW might be a sign of some kind of LUNACY._

Mari rounded a corner and stopped short. Katara and Sokka were crouched behind a stone wall, sheltering themselves from a gigantic air-bubble being conjured by none other than a glowing Aang. IT didn't take Mari a second to figure out why he was glowing—at his feet lay the bodies of Fire Soldier after Fire Soldier after Fire Soldier…and in the corner of the room, wrapped in tattered Air Nomad robes with a swirly necklace encircling its' bony neck, was what remained of Monk Gyatso.

Mari trudged forward through the wind. Several times, it threatened to bowl her over and sweep her into a wall or off of a cliff, but eventually she reached Katara and Sokka. She smacked Sokka—he was jabbering like a baby—and looked significantly at KAtara.

"We didn't…he was trying to catch a lemur and jumped out of a window…we didn't know…he won't stop. Mari, he's going to destroy the whole temple." Katara gazed at her with wide, freaked out eyes.

Mari pursed her lips and took a fistful of Katara's tunic. _No, no he's not. Because I like this place. And also, this whole thing is your fault. If you'd just told him in the first place… _ Mari hauled Katara to her feet and pulled her around the wall to face Aang. _He would have been able to handle it better. He feels like he doesn't have anything now, which is a lie of course. Make him see that he's not alone._ She gave Katara a shove into the wind bubble.

"HEY!" Sokka shouted. "YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HER! AND THEN I'LL NEVER GET TO EAT!"

Mari loved Katara. She loved Sokka too, she supposed, in the way that a big sister loved her siblings. And in the same way that a big sister might correct her siblings in a (slightly rough) manner, Mari made it her duty to correct Katara and Sokka when they did stupid things. Hiding the helmet from Aang had just made its' way to the top of Mari's list of stupid things that she'd seen the brother-sister pair do.

"AANG," Katara was screaming (Mari watched, her arms folded proudly over her chest. If Katara wasn't anything else, she was brave. Sometimes she just needed a push. "I KNOW YOU FEEL BAD RIGHT NOW. BUT I'M HERE! I LOVE YOU!"

And if that wasn't foreshadowing, Mari didn't know what was.

"SOKKA AND I LOST OUR MOM TO THE FIRE NATION! WE'RE NOT QUITE SURE ABOUT MARI, BUT WE KNOW SHE'S GOT SOME ISSUES TOO! (_Issues? Geez…thanks Katara…) _WE KNOW HOW IT FEELS! LET US HELP YOU! LET US BE YOUR FAMILY!"

She said a bunch of other stuff too, but already Aang was quieting down. Mari smacked her hands together and rubbed them happily. Katara was really such a good girl. Once the wind had quieted down, Mari walked forward and pulled Aang into her arms before he had a chance to collapse like last time—she wasn't taking any chances of him catching a cold.

_See, Gyatso, _Mari thought, _Your boy still needs you._

Later that night, the group camped in the scary statue room. Mari didn't actually sleep—she was too scared that the stone figures would, oh, come alive and eat her or something—but then, neither did anybody else. Sokka kept whining about how hungry he was. Aang—after he'd woken up—just stood in front of a statue that he insisted was of Avatar Roku, his predecessor. Katara stood next to him, not touching him or saying anything. Just there for comfort.

Sometime late, a little fuzzy thing with big ears and a swishing tail arrived in the tower…hall…place. It had a name…Mari just couldn't remember what it was.

Sokka saw the creature and dove for it, groaning something about "fresh meat." The creature chucked a load of fruit at his head, and Mari decided that she kind of liked it. Katara picked it up and cuddled it and talked to it like it was a baby. The fuzzy thing liked that.


	6. In Which There Are Fangirls

_A/N: Sorry this took so long (I know I've said this a couple times, but I really, truly mean it) but I came up with the best idea for a story and I've been scribbling stuff down lately. Also, there has been friend drama. I mean, Holy Spring Fever, Batman! It's like I'm stuck on the Love Boat and can't get off! I didn't even sign up for this crazy ride! I don't even have a love life, why do other people think I'm so interested in theirs? Okay, a little bit interested…a lot interested…I mean, I'm the one who just read through my mom's entire stash of Elizabeth Mansfields and Betty Neels' books. Totally asked for this. *shakes head slowly*_

_ANYWAY! You guys are still my freaking all-time-favorite-people-ever-in-this-universe. So many reviews and likes! I feel like a supahstar! *squints at limelight* okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration but at least I'm happy, right? And if I'm happy, that means you guys get more grumpy Zuko action. *rubs hands together* Hehehe… I was going to try to fit in a whole episode into a chapter again, too, but it was way too long so I chopped it in half because I don't know if you guys like really insanely long chapters or not..._

_Now, before I go I'd just like to ask that you guys take a couple minutes to review my story. No chiz, I love hearing from you guys, and I would reply to each and every one of you if I weren't afraid of sounding like a cotton-headed ninny-muggin. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a kitty that needs lovin' and you have a fanfic that needs reading. _

_xXx_

His name was Zuko, and he was a prince.

Not just any prince, in fact, but the banished son of Firelord Ozai. Mari knocked back a glass of coconut juice and stared disconcertingly at the old woman behind the counter of the restaurant. If the lady was right, this Zuko boy would prove to be more dangerous than an irritated Arctic Hippo. He was like a… a donkey with a carrot dangling before him, only in this case the carrot was Zuko's honor and his crown.

Mari smiled thoughtfully at the woman and scribbled her thanks on a napkin with a bit of charcoal. She slid a few copper coins across the counter and strode away quickly. The sun was already reaching its height in the sky and Aang would be raring to fly. Katara would probably be worried that Mari was late and Sokka would want to know why she'd snuck off without taking him with her. So many explanations, so little time…

The barkeep watched Mari leave. Strange customers were her specialty, but mute girls in Water Tribe clothing, especially mute girls that scribbled questions about teenage boys with scars on their eyes on the barkeep's best napkins and then ordered coconut milk, of all things, in the same shaky but well-trained hand, beat all. She pursed her lips and swept the coins off the counter and tucked them into a little pouch that hung off her waist. She kept the napkin too—just in case.

xXx

_Peace._

_ Inner tranquility._

_ Om…_

Zuko really wasn't any good at meditation, but he was trying his best to look like he was trying his best when the door to his bedroom creaked open.

"Pardon me, Zuko," Uncle Iroh whispered, "I think we must have a talk."

_Peace._

_ Inner tranquility._

_ Ignore the old man._

_ Om…_

"It is about the Avatar…"

Zuko clenched his fists. Damn—and he'd been so relaxed (at least, relaxed for him) just a minute ago.

"What is it, Uncle?"

"Well, you must promise to stay calm. Do not get angry with me."

_Too late._

"What, Uncle?"

"Well…we've lost his trail." Iroh paused for a moment while the candles in front of Zuko flared and sputtered. "But the good news is that we're approaching the docks! Do you know what this means?"

"No…" Zuko growled.

"It means we can replenish our supply of tea!"

"Well isn't that just fantastic."

"Yes, isn't it? And while we were in town, I thought we could wander around the shops and press people for information. It's one of those crucial seaside towns where every ship from here to tomorrow goes to resupply and get drunk."

"We resupplied at the last island, Uncle. Go and tell the captain to turn around and continue on to the Earth Kingdom."

Iroh sighed gustily. "Ah, well…" he began to back towards the door. "It will be a pity…the men were so looking forward to some land time. I dare say they won't be very happy at all."

Zuko could feel his good eye twitching. Was he developing a tick? He was developing a tick! And it was all Uncle Iroh's fault! This was blackmail!

"The men would ask questions too," Iroh said calmly.

"Argh!" Zuko groaned. "Fine. Take us to the docks. I don't care." He resumed the lotus position and squeezed his eyes shut. Iroh took the hint and skipped away, leaving the door gaping wide.

_Peace_

_ Calm_

Zuko's eye twitched again. He gave up.

xXx

"Aang, why are you taking your clothes off?" Katara asked warily. Aang took off his flowy little Air Nomad shirt and dropped it in the sand.

"I'm going to ride a giant Koi!" he exclaimed. "Watch me, Katara! Watch!"

The pants came off next and Aang was off into the smooth water of the bay. Katara laughed and sat down in the sand to honor Aang's request and watch him. Sokka was trying to hunt something off in the bushes, and so Mari found it quite easy to slip away from the group. It had been too long since she had laid on the sand of a beach and let the sun shine down on her face—not since…before. When Mari's mother had still been…

Mari sat down a considerable distance away from the rest of the group. She stripped off her boots and then, in quick succession, her several layers of thick stockings.

She dug her toes into the cool sand and smiled. It felt so good—rough and cool against her skin. Mari collapsed onto her back and wriggled into the sand. She burrowed her fingers underneath the golden surface of the sand and twisted them around a bit—little droplets of water coalesced around her hands.

She lay there for a long time—she wasn't asleep, not really. She listened to the birds sing—there were no birds other than penguins in the Southern Water Tribe—and felt an ocean breeze carry salty droplets of water onto her skin. Mari hadn't realized it just then, but for the first time in a long time, she had forgotten how to worry.

xXx

Zuko scowled at his uncle from halfway across the snug little bar. Iroh had been schmoozing and flirting with the weathered woman who ran the place for the better part of an hour. He'd watched his uncle down cup after cup of watery green tea while Zuko sat with a hood over his face, hunched in a dark corner without anything to eat or drink—he had completely forgotten to bring money with him.

He inhaled sharply and tapped his clenched fists against the tabletop. He could wait.

And so he did, for what seemed like another hour. It was really only fifteen minutes. Finally, the woman slid a crumpled looking napkin across the counter. Iroh grasped it with one hand, took the woman's hand in the other and planted a whiskery kiss on it. She giggled.

Zuko stood up and swept out of the place in his uncle's roly-poly wake. They stepped out into the chilly night together and started down the rocky path that lead to the docks in silence.

Finally Zuko had had enough.

"Well?" He asked grumpily. "What did she give you?"

Iroh laughed. "Patience is a virtue, my boy. You would do well to remember that."

"Just give me the information, will you?" Zuko cursed his uncle's propensity for old proverbs and resisted the urge to mutter something acidic underneath his breath.

His uncle nodded and thought, and nodded some more. And thought. And walked.

Zuko gritted his teeth and seethed inwardly.

Finally—_finally_—Iroh spoke. "You remember the girl that hit you with my lovely tea pot?"

"_No_," Zuko said sarcastically.

"Well, first of all, she's a mute," Iroh graciously ignored Zuko's tone, "Can't say a word, according to Tarii."

"And Tarii is…?"

"Why, that charming little lady in the drinking establishment."

"Um…"

"She told me that the girl came in early in the morning with some Water Tribe coppers. Sat there for a while with a menu and then ordered coconut milk…strange thing to order at a bar of all places…"

Zuko gave a disgusted snort. He hated anything coconut.

"Had a couple of glasses and then took out a bit of charcoal and started writing on napkins."

"She can write?"

"Oh yes. Quite well, too—It looks almost calligraphic if you ask me, so she must have had some education."

"What did she write about?"

"Oh, nothing much at first. She asked Tarii's name, gave Tarii her own, and chatted about the weather for a bit—"

"You mean wrote."

"Ah, yes. She wrote to Tarii, and of course Tarii was so curious, never having seen a mute before, that she stayed and talked back. Said that made Mari smile—that's what the napkins say her name is, Zuko, don't laugh."

Zuko threw his uncle an incredulous glance. "_Mari?_ The name belongs to a-a flower or a bird."

"That is her name, nonetheless. Several napkins in, I found something rather interesting."

"Oh yes?" Zuko slid off his hood. "And what would that be?"

"She asked for your name. Well…specifically she asked for the name of a pale, pompous teenage boy with a scar across half his face."

"I am _not _pale!"

"There was also something else." Iroh fished in his pocket and pulled out the crumpled bits of paper. He handed them to his nephew, who skimmed over them with a slight frown etched onto his face. Finally he looked up at his Uncle and nodded.

"We set sail at once."

xXx

Mari woke up tethered to a tree, surrounded by women in clown makeup. Sokka was shouting in her ear about being beaten up by a bunch of girls, and Aang was using his 'now, let's just be reasonable' voice. Katara was asking the same question Mari wanted to ask: "Who are you?"

Wait—that wasn't the question Mari wanted to ask. What she did want to say was something along the lines of "What did you do this time, Sokka?" or "Who are the weird chicks in the clown makeup waving fans in our direction?" or maybe, "Pardon me, but why exactly are we tied to the trunk of a very large and poky tree?"

That last one probably would have been the most relevant—the tree was very scratchy, and Mari's head hurt. Everyone was making so much noise—something would have to be done about that or nothing would ever be made sense of.

Mari kicked Sokka sharply in his shin—while her arms were restricted, her legs were not—and he yelped in pain, but he shut his mouth after that, if only to glare at her resentfully. Next she knocked her head into Aang's shiny little cranium. He stopped being reasonable long enough to look in her direction and say innocently, "Oh, good, Mari. You're awake. Could you please tell these ladies that we're just here to ride some giant koi? And possibly that amazing, giant sea monster?"

"Unagi," one of the abominably dressed clown women corrected him sharply.

Sea monster? Mari didn't even bother asking. She gestured down towards her mouth with her eyes and made a few stupid-looking faces. Aang groaned. "Oh, that's right…" he turned back to the clownettes. "Look, if you want proof that we're not firebenders, I can prove it."

One of the painted girls gave a snort. She was smacked upside the head with a fan by one of the others. Still another one (they really looked alike. It was quite confusing to Mari) stepped forward and nodded. "Fine then. Show us."

There was a _whoosh_ and Aang was out of that rope. "Watch this!" He held up a few metal marbles that he'd purchased at the last island. A controlled bit of air swept them up and whirled them around in a circle.

There was a moment of silence…

And then all hell broke loose.

No, literally Mari's idea of hell. The clownettes went from steel-faced warrior women with really bad taste in makeup to shrieking fangirls who _still_ had really bad taste in makeup. There must have been something amazing about a kid Airbender, because they acted like they were stuck to him like glue.

They were busy mobbing Aang when the painted warrior that had asked Aang to prove himself marched grudgingly over to the tree and slashed the rope down with a knife, releasing Katara, Sokka and Mari.

"There," she said with a tight-lipped smile (at least, it looked tight-lipped… it could have just been the lipstick…). "I apologize for the inconvenience—you must understand how cautious we have to be, what with the Fire Nation out and about. Welcome to Kyoshi Island."

The only one that heard her clearly was Mari. Katara was staring at Aang's new fangirls with ill-disguised jealousy and Sokka was pretty much drooling over the painted chick.

Mari held out a hand and returned the clownette's offer of peace with a slow nod. Clownette grasped Mari's hand in hers for a moment, and then whirled around and set about trying to restore orders to her soldiers.

xXx

The village received them with nothing short of an excellent turn-out. The elder which seemed to run the town was waiting at the forefront of a middling-sized semi-circle composed of the other members of a village. There was even some guy who rushed out in front and screamed while he spouted froth. Aang and Sokka seemed to love it—Aang was asked to kiss babies and sign his name on kitchenware, little girls threw ribbons and boots at him (Mari wondered about those girls—what kind of tradition was throwing your boot at somebody?) and Sokka got free food without even having to ask.

Mari, never one for crowds or loud noises—both of which were present in this town's celebration of the Avatar's return—walked over into the shelter of a roofed porch and sat down on one of the steps. She propped her elbows up on her knees and leaned her chin against her palms. A few men were picking out a tune on various instruments, and Aang had been pulled into a dance by a very boisterous looking girl boasting a long braid. Other villagers were joining in, or chatting around a hastily arranged buffet table, or sipping on cool ale that the local brewery was handing out for free.

It wasn't as though Mari didn't want to join in the celebrations—she did, more than anything. But for the moment, she was content to watch, content to look at the joy around her.

"I don't like it," Katara said testily, throwing herself down next to Mari. She took a huge, gallomping bite of a meat bun. "It's going to Aang's head already. You see what happens when I'm not there to take care of him?"

_Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear,_ Mari sighed to herself. She was going to have her hands full during this stay on the island.


	7. In Which Mari Finds Her Fire

_A/N: Wow! Two chapters in as many days! I don't know about you, but I think I owe myself a reward… what shall it be? Ice cream? Home-made flan? A Fast and Furious movie marathon? Decisions, decisions! _

_Thank you all so much for your reviews. Keep 'em coming—they make me smile, big time, and as you can see they motivate me to get stuff (chapters…) done. I even decided to be nice and put in a little hint about Mari's past. *rubs hands together maniacally* Muwahaha…_

_That's about all that I wanted to say. I'm going to go to bed now, if you don't mind…got to prepare for the Monday, if you know what I mean. See you later, Alligators! Happy reading!_

_xXx_

Mari's assumption proved correct—that first week on the Kyoshi Island, Aang's fanclub became extremely invasive. They wanted to eat with Aang. Sleep with Aang (Ew, not that way sillies. Get your minds out of the gutter, most of his fans are like six!) live with Aang, talk with Aang, dress like Aang, be painted like Aang, chase Aang over a bridge… It was all Mari could do to sweep them out the front door of the group's guest house at night so that Aang could have a few hours alone. Not that he wanted it—for a boy who'd been raised as a monk, he was surprisingly big-headed about the whole "I am the Avatar, and therefore totally awesome" (his exact words) thing. He could be such a show off.

Sokka was swiftly becoming one of the most adamant sexists Mari had ever met. He came home at night sporting bruises (courtesy of the leader of the Warriors of Kyoshi), ranting about how women should stay in the kitchen and make seal jerky and sew holes in pants. He got even more bruises for his comments, some from Katara, most of them from Mari.

Katara spent her days roaming the village and eyeing Aang's groupies with distaste. When she could find Mari, she complained that the Avatar of all people should have more common sense than to let a bunch of little girls appeal to his ego. She complained about how swelled his head was, how he never paid any attention to her anymore, how he was hardly around… really, she behaved like a jealous wife. But at least she got around to fixing that hole in Sokka's pants.

Mari spent most of her time avoiding Katara—surprise, surprise. She loved the girl more than life itself, but when Katara was angry about something, she liked to talk to Mari about it. Mari hated listening to Katara's rants, because—let's be honest—Katara was a little touchy about some things. Mostly Mari blamed it on the raging hormones of a blossoming teenage girl, but other times she had to physically restrain herself from boxing Katara's ears. To avoid having to do this, Mari would sneak away for hours during the daytime—and sometimes at night. She would wander through the village at times, or even along trails that lead up and around hills, through copses of trees, or along the beach, silent as a ghost and as searching as a lighthouse. Sometime between one of Katara's rants and an onslaught of rabid Avatar groupies, Mari had made a decision.

She searched out the most secluded part of the beach—a small inlet halfway around the island of Kyoshi, shallow and clear and hidden from prying eyes by heavy undergrowth. She walked there every day, carrying with her a knapsack loaded with food, and she stayed there almost until there was barely enough sunlight to make it back to the village before night fell.

It was in this place that Mari began to practice.

The idea had been tumbling 'round in her head for a long while—ever since her encounter with the annoyingly pompous Prince Zuko. People were going to come after Aang—and in all actuality, they would probably try to kill him or worse. The boy was far from being able to protect himself from the inevitable attacks, and as for Katara and Sokka…well, neither of them could do much either.

It had not been an easy decision—Mari did not relish the idea of fighting. She had done enough of that long ago, in a time of desperation that had required evil to be fought with darkness. This darkness still lurked within her—Mari could feel it like a shroud hanging over her every day of her life, the reason that she had not Water Bent—really Water Bent—in years.

She could feel it even now, as she pushed and pulled at the cold water in a nearby pool. The water barely moved, and Mari wondered how she'd let herself get so out of shape. Even Katara would have done better.

For a moment, the shroud was cast off by sheer determination to become strong once again. Mari forgot everything except for the water.

xXx

"Prince Zuko," Iroh said, serenely gliding over to take his place next to his nephew, "We are within sight of the Island of Kyoshi."

Zuko glanced at the old man and said nothing. His thoughts were consumed with what he would do when he had captured the Avatar and the mute. Lots of chains and bread and water for the Avatar, probably, but the thought of how to deal with the mute irritated him. Of course, she would have to be bound tightly. She was a bender, after all, and therefore a threat if her hands were loosed. Perhaps he would keep her on the deck where she would be within sight of guards…and water…at all times…bad idea.

Perhaps he would get Iroh to watch her. The man had too much free time, and honestly, Zuko almost felt bad watching him potter around the ship chatting up the crew day and night. A hostage would probably do wonders for him.

But then there was the problem of Uncle's spotty thinking. In a moment of weakness (tea-time) Iroh could be convinced to do almost anything—something demonstrated by the rough ballads still sung among his soldiers.

Of course, none of his other men were fit to watch a Water Bender…

He shook his head. Enough time dwelling on insignificant girls, he told himself. This was the time to focus on capturing the Avatar. He turned his head towards the distant shore and allowed himself a small smile.

_You won't get away this time, boy._

"Ready the Giant Lizards," he said in a suitably calm voice. "We will go to shore as soon as we arrive."

xXx

"Sokka, please explain to me why you're wearing Suki's clothes?" Katara asked snappishly. "You look even girlier than when you put on all that war paint and tried to hit Prince Zuko."

Mari stood in the doorway and stared. She didn't mean to be rude—it's not every day that one arrives home to find a boomerang-swinging Orangutan all painted up like a lady, waving fans in his sister's face. She wanted to remember this moment for ever.

"And Mari!" Katara whirled away from her brother for a moment. Mari's ecstatic face fell faster than a rock dropped off a cliff. Uh-oh.

Katara advanced upon her, shaking her finger and frowning fiercely—in full mother-mode.

"Where have you been all day? Every day, for the past week? You missed dinner last night! I made it special! Do you even know how…"

Mari tuned her out and stared over Katara's shoulder at Sokka. Their eyes met and Sokka shrugged as if to say "_Hey, don't blame me. She's been like this since I got home."_

So it must have something to do with Aang. That brat had done nothing but infuriate Katara since they'd arrived at the village. Something would have to be done about—

"Katara, Katara!" Aang shouted, bursting through the door.

_Speak of the Devil…_

"I'm gonna go try to ride the Unagi again! Me and a whole bunch of the girls are going down right now, won't you come watch?"

Katara had been looking softer up until Aang had mentioned his "bunch of the girls." She quickly became hard as stone again.

"I have shopping to do." Katara lunged for her basket, but Mari could see an opportunity here. She grasped the girl by the shoulders and launched her forcefully out the door and into the street. She tossed Aang out quickly afterwards, slammed the door, and pointed at Sokka. He looked at her incredulously.

"Since when do you toss people out of buildings?" He asked.

Mari made a rubbing motion against her face.

"But…Suki said I look good…"

_Well then she lied, big boy. Go wash it off before I have a heart attack._

"NEVER!" Sokka shrieked. He dove out one of the open window before Mari could do anything else. She sighed—great. Now she had a cross-dresser for an adopted brother. As if things couldn't get any _more_ interesting.

She wandered down the hall to take a nice, steamy bath. After a long day of splashing around in water, nothing could feel better than splashing around in more water.

xXx

Mari was reclining comfort as steam filled the bath room when she heard the screams. At first, she just figured it was Aang doing some new trick. Maybe getting somewhat killed by the Unagi. Nothing he couldn't handle by himself, right?

Then the screams got louder. Mari could hear people running by the house shouting, and throaty roars in the far distance. Warily, she stood up and reached for her towel. Something crashed in another room in the house.

Mari pulled on her clothes quickly—she was still soaked, so they stuck to her skin. It was really uncomfortable—something that Mari vowed to rectify as soon as she had figured out just what was going on. She didn't bother with shoes—her boots were too heavy to do anything. She stepped out of the bath room and stepped gingerly across the floor to the door. Not that there was much left of it to pass for a door—it looked as though something had crashed into the front room, knocked everything down, and then crashed out again.

Perhaps shoes would have been a good idea.

Ah, well. Mari shrugged—too late to go back now. She stepped out onto the front porch and took a deep breath…of smoke.

She sputtered and choked. Her eyes teared up as she squinted around, trying to see what was going on. She stumbled off the porch, tripping over one of the last steps. The air was clearer in the street—Mari could make out people scrambling to save belongings from burning buildings, people running, people unconscious on the ground.

She could also make out the Fire Soldiers. They sat astride giant lizard creatures. Some shot fire from their palms , others simply rode around and looked threatening…

They were destroying this village. Mari pressed her lips together. Why? Why do this?

"AVATAR!" somebody shouted.

Somebody with a very familiar voice.

"AVATAR, REVEAL YOURSELF AND WE WILL SPARE THIS ISLAND!"

_Spare the island? _Mari thought furiously, _SPARE THE ISLAND? Your cronies have already burnt this place half to the ground and you…you say you will spare it? _

And so, with thoughts filled with fury and revenge, Mari dove into the smoke.

xXx

Zuko didn't see the mute until she knocked him off his saddle. He fell flat on his back in the dusty road and lay there for a moment, unsure of what was happening. Then there she was, bending over him. Her hair was soaking wet—so was her face and her clothing. A few cool drops splashed onto his scar as the mute wrapped her hands around his throat.

He reacted instinctively, kicking his legs up under the mute's ribcage to flip her over him and onto her back. It should have left the mute breathless and unable to continue confrontation—she was so light that Zuko flipped her much farther than he had really meant to. Instead, she turned his attempt at disarming her into a flip, landing on her feet a few yards away.

Zuko scrambled to his feet and readied himself to do battle with this girl. She wasn't even standing in a fighting stance—instead, the mute stood there pulling at her hair, frowning. He realized too late what she was doing—the water pulled away from her skin and coalesced into a volatile blob of water so quickly that Zuko barely had time to duck just before a thin stream of water snapped into the space where his head had been moments before, curling and cracking much like a whip.

"What are you doing?" He gasped, taking a step forward. "That could have seriously hurt—"

The whip cracked out again and he ducked. This time, however, he wasn't fast enough. The end of the lash bit his cheek and sent a trickle of warm blood down his chin. Then Zuko realized—she did want to hurt him. He looked at the mute and saw a fury in her eyes that he had never seen rivaled. This girl…she wanted him to burn.

He stood still for a moment too long. The water curled around his wrist and pulled him forward, closer to the mute girl. She mouthed words at him, furious words that would have been shouted if any sound had come from them. He could only catch a few, easy words to distinguish.

Go was one. Evil, fire, village, hurt, hate, out, kill…those were others. The mute's eyes were sparkling dangerously now, threatening to overflow with water.

Her vision would be blurred. Zuko saw his chance, and he took it. One burst of fire to eliminate the water curled around his wrist. Another burst to force the girl back a few steps, and then he would have just enough time to leap onto his lizard's back, which would give him the upper hand again. He could capture her.

Zuko clenched his fists and let loose the first fireburst. It didn't have at all the kind of effect he had thought it would—his wrist was liberated, yes, but something had gone wrong with the mute girl. At the sight of the fire, or the feel of the heat or something… she'd dropped to the ground, wrapping her arms around her head like child preparing for a beating. Like she was afraid of the fire.

Zuko did something that he would look back on later and curse himself with shame. He hesitated. He turned around. He hopped onto his horse and he left the mute girl curled there, alone and helpless.

Not important, he told himself. There was, after all, an avatar to capture.

xXx

_Metal shackles dug into her wrists. She couldn't move, so tired, so hungry…_

_Something splashed into her mouth—hot. Water? Hot water. Good water. She lapped it up like a dog, relishing in the blessed liquid. It sang to her, this life giving stuff. Gave her hope, even when she couldn't move a finger._

"_There, that's it girl," one of the guards smacked her head and pulled the ladle away. The hope disappeared with it._

_She whimpered and pleaded and cried. Still so thirsty. No water, anywhere, it was so dry…so dry…_

"Mari? Mari. You need to wake up."

Who was Mari? That wasn't her name. She was—

"You should've seen him, Mari. Aang was amazing! He chased the fire benders away and tamed the Unagi and Suki kis—"

"Sokka, shut up. She's not even conscious yet."

"Yes she is, her eyes are open. See?" the boy poked her. "Mari, you're awake right? Say yes."

Mari shook her head.

"Hey, ask her if she's always been able to Water Bend like that," some other voice piped in. That was Aang…Airbend…no, Avatar. Mari could see his shiny bald head perched on top of Appa's head.

"I keep telling you boys, she needs to rest."

Katara.

"Rest, Shmest. We're hungry and curious. Give us a break, Katara."

Sokka.

Prince Zuko.

Kyoshi.

The jumbled thoughts and memories began to filter back into proper order. She turned her head to look at Katara, who smiled at her and pressed a cool cloth to Mari's forehead.

"You were knocked out," Katara told her. "We found you right after all the smoke cleared. The Elder wanted you to stay so he could make sure you were all right, but Aang didn't want to stick around—just in case Zuko was going to come back or something."

Mari nodded. Smart boy.

"You can't get up though. Your feet are all scraped up and you breathed in too much smoke."

Mari was actually okay with not moving. She closed her eyes again and leaned it back onto the supple leather of Appa's saddle. She wasn't exactly comfortable, but having a fit of momentary insanity will do that to a person. Mari knew that she hadn't been knocked out—there had been some flash of fire that came from Zuko's hand… and then…

"Hey, Aang," Katara said pleasantly, "Tell Mari about how you rode the Unagi."

"Oh!" Aang exclaimed. "Mari, you'll love this, it's amazing!" He launched into a tale of greatly exaggerated heroism.

Mari lay there and listened to him, smiling at all the appropriate parts and nodding appreciatively at others. She did love it.


	8. In Which Katara Makes a Plan

_A/N: School's almost out. School's almost out. I can make it another week…I can…_

_Sorry this one took so long. I started writing it, accidentally deleted it and wrote my English paper on the file. Bleh._

_This chapter's going to be a two-parter this time. "Imprisoned" was one of the first episodes of Avatar the Last Airbender that I ever saw, so I hope I did it justice… *crosses fingers* _

_Thank you all for your reviews and favorites! Especially the ones late at night…I just can't put words to the feeling that comes from waking up to my ipod alarm go off at three AM. You guys are the best. _

_xXx_

"Guys," Aang whispered, "Am I missing something?"

"No," Katara replied quietly.

"Then why is Mari going ballistic on a tree?"

"You have obviously never seen her when she gets really hungry. Bad things happen. _Bad things_."

"Oh, shut up Sokka."

"I'm just being truthful."

The trio looked over to where Mari stood, bashing her booted foot repeatedly into a tree. Her hands were balled into fists. Little wisps of dark hair stood up here and there, giving the girl a slightly crazed look. Actually, that's a slight understatement.

Mari looked like a lunatic. There was nothing "slight" about it.

It had been a long day. Mari had woken up early that morning, before the sun had risen, due to a nightmare. Aside from the usual one, there had been another where pink rock candy crawled up her arms and turned her into a living statue.

_Great,_ she'd thought, wiping sweat from her brow. _Now I've been emotionally scarred by a practical joke. What next? Please tell me, how can this get any worse?_

It had gotten worse, in that from having awoken so early in the morning, Mari contracted a skull-cracking headache by the time breakfast was ready. They'd had to fly hard and fast on Appa for hours that day if they wanted to get to anywhere suitable for camping that night, and Sokka had very nearly pushed Mari off…by accident, but still. He'd apologized quickly and tackled her with an overenthusiastic hug.

They'd landed in a forest that night. It was empty and bleak and much to quiet. They'd discovered that Momo had eaten the last of their food. Aang had tripped over Appa's toes and spilled water all down Mari's front. Katara and Sokka had started arguing over what to do next.

And so Mari had kicked the tree. In her defense, it had really seemed like a good idea at the time. Her philosophy (at least at the moment) was that if you couldn't scream, go for the next best thing.

Hit stuff.

At first, it was enormously satisfying. Mari felt a vicious, gleeful pleasure as her boot thudded against the seasoned wood again and again. Her hair came loose from its' stubby ponytail, allowing bits and pieces of her choppy black hair to bounce around, free of encumbrance and in response to the great joy that was welling within her at the chance to finally release all of the pent up tension which had been building within her since she'd woken up on Appa's saddle after the burning of Kyoshi, Mari was smiling.

It was not a sane smile.

"Would somebody _please_ explain what's going on?" Aang begged again. He'd returned from leaping around in the tree branches with the help of his Air Bending to find Sokka and Katara sitting on a carpet of dry pine needles while Mari…did whatever she was doing.

Sokka shrugged. "I don't know," he said hesitantly. "Katara and I were simply discussing the best way to collect food, and all of a sudden she just ran over there and started kicking that thing and grinning."

Katara cocked her head to one side. "Maybe she's finally lost it."

"Could she be possessed?"

"Oh my gosh, what if it's a violent woodland spirit out for revenge! What if our only option is to stab Mari through the heart with my boomerang? What if we have to sacrifice one of our own to appease the spirit's thirst for blood? What if the spirit enslaves us and takes it to its terrible lair where it forces us to work for a thousand years?"

"Yeah, because that's _so_ likely to happen, Sokka…"

"Would you just—"

"Sh! Guys, she's coming over here. Just act natural." Aang leaned back against a tree trunk and started whistling in a very casual manner (yeah…._casual…_ that's what it was) as Mari limped over to the group.

_Much better,_ she thought, wincing. She was beginning to regret being so enthusiastic towards the tree. Her toes hurt.

"Hello, _Mari,_" Sokka said, winking. "Do you…understand what I'm saying?"

Mari rolled her eyes a smacked the boy's arm roughly. _I'm a mute, not freaking deaf you moron._

"Good news, guys," Sokka squeaked, rubbing his arm. "She's okay!"

Mari glared at him.

Sokka glared back.

"Well," Katara said loudly, "I'm going to go get firewood… Sokka, you go that direction and get some stuff…"

Without looking away from Mari, Sokka flailed his arms. "What? Sheesh, Katara, stop distracting me! This is a STARING CONTEST!"

_Yep, go get firewood, dear, _Mari thought, staring into Sokka's black eyes. _If Sokka actually thinks he has a chance at beating me….hehe…beating me…_

Aang sat down in between the two friends and looked up at them. "See you in a minute, Katara," he called. "I'm just going to keep score."

xXx

two and a half minutes later, Katara came dashing back into camp. She didn't carry any firewood and she looked positively ecstatic.

"Guys!" she squealed, "Guys, guess what I just saw!"

Mari and Sokka had blinked at the same time. Sokka was celebrating a victory by dancing around smacking the trees with his boomerang and Mari was lying flat on her back trying to ignore his whistles and whoops. Aang was lying next to her trying to figure out why she was staring at the forest canopy. He wasn't exactly good at interpretation.

At the sound of Katara's voice, Mari and Aang shot up. Sokka stopped shrieking about how manly he was.

"I saw an Earth Bender!"

Sokka didn't hesitate. "Whoop-de-friggin-doo, Katara. Remember what happened the last time you saw an Earth Bender? We almost got locked in a sweet candy coffin for time and all eternity! Not that that would have been bad or anything, I mean, I love candy as much as the next person, but—"

"NO!" Katara shouted. "Don't you understand what this means? If there's somebody out here, then there must be other people and where there are people there's food and shelter and where there's shelter, there are BEDS!"

There was a moment of quiet. Then—

"I'll saddle Appa," Aang said, standing up.

"I'll pack the nuts," Sokka said, saluting Katara. "You're a good sister, you know that?"

Mari just smiled. She hadn't relished sleeping on the ground that night—too many pointy rocks and Sokka-snores.

xXx

It was the saddest little village that any of the group had ever seen, and they were still several miles away. Dismal little ribbons of black smoke rose from chimneys that stuck up from thatched roofs. A dry and cracked road wound through parched-looking fields to the town. Even the sky seemed to have taken on a gray hue over this place.

"I don't think I like it here," Katara whispered, edging closer to Mari. "Something's not right."

Mari put an arm around the girl's shoulders and glanced about protectively. She, too, could feel the wrongness that surrounded this town.

She glanced over to Aang, who sat atop Appa's head. He looked down at her and flexed his fingers. Quietly, with her free hand, Mari snapped open the cap to her water skin. A slight wetness coated her fingers and gave her comfort. She felt marginally better—there was no water to be gleaned from the air here—it was too dry, too warm.

They strode into the village without pausing, and slid through a few emptier streets to find the main road.

It was then that they realized what was wrong. Standing or marching up and down the marketplace were men in blood-red uniforms.

Uniforms stamped with the Fire Lord's insignia.

This town was occupied by Fire Nation soldiers.

Mari reached in front of her and grabbed the collar of Aang's shirt. She dragged him backwards and shoved him behind her.

"Woah!" He squealed. Mari ignored him and glanced at Sokka. Although he was looking around at all the food with obvious lust, his hand hung at his side with the boomerang in it.

"Hey!" Katara exclaimed, unloosing Mari's hand from her shoulder, "Look, there's the guy!" She pointed at the back of somebody with a head of unreasonably long brown hair and dashed towards him before Mari could do anything. Aang and Sokka followed.

Mari stood stock still for a moment—didn't they realize that they couldn't go running around this town calling attention to themselves? With a frustrated inward sigh, she walked slowly towards the store that her friends had disappeared into.

xXx

The guy's name was Haru. He was maybe fifteen, and he was stupid.

"…so the soldiers took my dad and the other Earth Benders. I'm the only one left. You saw me practicing my Bending in secret, Katara. I didn't know anybody else was there."

The boy was an Earth Bender in a town that prohibited Bending, and he insisted on practicing every day in a ravine with so many blind spots and brush cover that he could have been watched by anyone at any time, for however long they wanted.

Haru brushed a lock of long, brown hair out of his face and grinned. "I'm kind of relieved that it was you guys who saw me."

_Of course you were glad. We're not going to ARREST YOU._

"It's so nice that I don't have to hide who I am from somebody anymore."

Mari pushed back her wicker chair and went to stand next to one of the curtained windows that allowed light to filter into Haru and his mother's home. She crossed her arms and looked out across a great golden field of wheat. It twisted and waved slightly in a breeze.

Before Mari had arrived on the doorstep of the Southern Water Tribe, she had experienced the things that the Fire Nation could do. Her silence, the scar on her throat… these were simply remnant testaments of their horrors. To hear this boy talk about breaking the law in this town even after all his friends, his friend's parents even, had been taken away and locked in some sort of boat prison…it rankled. She wanted to smack him, then hug him and tell him that he was brave. Stupid…but brave.

"I know what you're thinking," Haru's mother came to stand next to Mari. "You're thinking that he's going to be the next one arrested. That he doesn't have a clue what he's doing."

Reluctantly, Mari nodded.

"I think that to… It's all I can do some days to stop myself from locking him in the cellar because I'm so worried. But I realized a long time ago that I can't protect himself _from_ himself. He has to realize his mistakes himself. A mother can only do so much before her little chick decides to fly."

"MOM!" Haru shouted from the table. "I told you to stop calling me that!"

Haru's mom turned around. "I'll stop calling you that when you stop wearing your hair so long! If it keeps this way, I'm going to have to start introducing you as my _daughter!"_

"Oooooh," Sokka howled. "Burn!"

Haru stood up and twisted his hair over one shoulder. It did look pretty…feminine. Mari thought it would look a lot better with some facial hair to go with it. Maybe a mustache.

"Katara, come on. Let's go talk away from all these…" unable to think of an insult that could be applied to his mother, Haru stormed comically from the house. Katara followed with a grin.

"Do you know, I think he rather likes that girl?" Haru's mother patted Mari's arm and smiled. "I haven't seen him this happy in a long time.

"Likes her _how_ exactly?" Aang asked.

xXx

The next morning, Mari was sitting outside of the barn where they'd spent the night. She'd had…nightmares again that night, but this one had featured Prince Zuko instead of the usual shadowy torturer. He'd come at her with fire daggers in his fists, leering angrily in her direction. She'd awoken with a start.

_Great, _she'd thought. _First nightmares about candy and then I'm being beaten up by a… a… _She'd thought of several insults worthy of Prince Zuko. None of them were type-able.

Mari had ended up watching the sun rise while her shaking subsided. She was there when Katara emerged for a drink of water, and when Haru's mother came dashing across the wheat field with tears streaming down her weathered face.

"They took him!" she cried. "They took my son!"

Mari stood up. Katara sat down.

_What? _Mari thought.

"What?" Katara breathed.

"An old man brought Fire Soldiers to our home…he said that Haru had used Earth Bending to save him…and then they took him away!"

Sokka emerged from the interior of the barn, boomerang in hand. "What's going on?"

"Haru's been arrested," Katara said quietly. Sokka turned and ducked back into the barn to fetch Aang.

"The old man…" Katara pressed a fist against her mouth. "It's all my fault. We…we were on our walk yesterday, and the man…the man was trapped in a collapsed mine. He would have died if I hadn't asked Haru to Earth Bend him out."

Haru's mother sobbed louder.

"Mari, what do we do?" Katara asked. "You know about the Fire Soldiers. You always know what to do."

But Mari didn't. Mari wanted to gather Katara and Aang and Sokka and run with them and take them far away. She knew what the Fire Soldiers could do—would do. Mari placed a hand on Katara's bowed head. Perhaps if she got them to a safe place, she could return herself and—

"What happened?" Aang said from the doorway.

They relayed what Haru's mother had said and he nodded grimly. He looked almost adult, so serious and contemplative for a child. It worried Mari. A child shouldn't be able to look like that.

"Katara," he said at last, "I know what you're thinking."

"This is all my fault!" Katara gasped. "I shouldn't have…we couldn't… but the old man…" She fell silent and bit her lip. Her blue eyes flickered back and forth as though she were looking, searching for something that could be done.

"Don't blame yourself, Katara. It wasn't your fault," Aang said, placing a hand on her shoulder. He turned to look at Haru's mother, who was wiping at her tearstained face with the corner of one of her sleeves. "Don't worry, ma'am. We're going to save your son."

Mari's head jerked around at the word "we."

Haru's mother sobbed her thank yous and stumbled off back to her shop to mourn for her son and her husband.

Sokka tapped his boomerang against the earth. "So, Aang," he asked. "What's the plan?"

"We already have one," Katara said quietly. "I'm going to get arrested."

Mari didn't like where this was going.

"As an Earth Bender."

Mari buried her face in her hands. _Oh geez…Oh geez…this is not going to end well._

xXx


	9. In Which There Is a Prison Break

_A/N: Okay… so maybe this is a three-parter… but I promise I'll finish the "Imprisoned" episode in the next chapter. I swear on… on… on my copy of Pride and Prejudice, that's it! Because there is nothing more trustworthy that Jane Austen's work. And also I couldn't think of anything else (I'm rereading it, and I'm right at the part where Lizzy's giving Mr. Darcy what-for about his proposal. Go Eliza!)… but mostly that first thing. _

_My school got out today, by the way so all y'all better prepare yourselves for updating HEAVEN. Muahahaha! I've waited like…*counts on fingers* NINE MONTHS for this much free time. _

_Let's see… what else… oh! You guys, you… reviewing and jazz… psh, it makes me way too happy. And just in retrospect, if you have any questions about the story at all, don't feel all shy 'bout emailing me or something. _

_But speaking of REVIEWS, I learned something interesting today… did you know that every time you review this story, a fairy is born? Not one of those annoying little buggers from Once Upon a Time either—the cool kind. You know the ones I'm talking about. (*hint* think "Peter Pan")_

_xXx_

"Mari…"

_Nope._

"Mari, you need to let go."

_Not gonna happen, sweetheart._

Katara tugged at Mari's arms—they were wrapped around her shoulders. "Listen, I know you don't want me to do this, but I can't just let Haru rot in jail! It's not right."

Behind them, there was a loud thud. Sokka had managed to roll a stone onto an air vent. Mari grimaced at the noise—this whole thing was Katara's plan. Have Aang use his airbending to force enough air through a vent to lift a rock, have Katara standing nearby in a reasonably Earth-Bender-y position when said rock is blasted into their air, and get arrested by the Fire Soldiers.

Easy. Freaking. Peasy.

_I can't let you do this alone._ Mari relinquished her hold on Katara and looked her over carefully. _I won't be there to protect you from the baddies._

"Tell you what?" Katara said, oblivious to Mari's inner monologue. "When you guys come pick us up, I'll let you be the one to come onto the raider to bust us out. Is that a plan?"

Mari shook her head. _No! No, this doesn't work! You don't even knowwhat could—_

Katara turned away from Mari and looked over at Sokka. "Is Aang in position?"

He nodded and bit into a meat bun that he'd bought from a street vendor when Mari wasn't looking. She glared at him and he grinned at her with a mouth full of doughy gunk.

"Okay, Katara, you ready?"

"Yeah." Katara glanced down the street—a group of soldiers had just rounded a corner and were just walking in their direction. "Let's go."

Mari leaned against a crumbly stucco wall and tried to look like she was totally unattached to Katara in any way. Yep—just minding her own business, not doing anything in particular… just leaning up against a wall in a totally casual manner…

Katara bumped into Sokka in an overly dramatic manner.

"Hey. You! Watch where you're going," Sokka griped. Mari rolled her eyes. Oh, gods… if the soldiers didn't realize that this was a fake, then they were some seriously dumb people.

"You watch where you're going, you…um…. You punk," Katara shouted, swaggering around like a drunk. "I'll show you what's what…with my EARTHBENDING SKILL!"

She stuck a ridiculous pose that Mari guessed was supposed to imitate and Earth Bender's stance.

The soldiers glanced over.

Nothing happened.

"EARTHBENDING SKiLL!" Katara punched the air. "WHICH I HAVE! BECAUSE I AM AN EARTH BENDER!"

Sokka glared down at the vent.

"EARTHBENDI—"

Finally, Aang got the message. There was a loud whoosh, and the rock rose about three feet in the air.

"Oh my!" Sokka said, whirling around. "Fire soldiers! Thank goodness you're here! This horrible young lady is breaking the law!"

The Fire Soldiers looked at each other.

Then at Sokka.

Then at Katara.

"Go on," Sokka urged. "Arrest her!"

"Er…okay," one of the soldiers said.

Katara held out her hands.

xXx

"Are you sure Katara's on here?"

"Do you see another prison rig anywhere, Aang?"

"I'm sorry if I just want to be certain we're not going to send Mari to her death!"

"Mari would be totally fine if that happened, it's a reasonable mistake to make!"

_Um, guys…_ Mari raised a hand. _I'm pretty sure we have the right rig but… if it wasn't… I wouldn't be okay. I'm pretty sure I'd come back and haunt your guts out._

"See?" Sokka decided to see Mari's hand as a sign of agreement with his statement. He reached over and gave Mari a high five.

Aang stuck his tongue out and started to say something, but closed his mouth as a couple guards walked by above them. Appa huffed quietly. As soon as the guards had passed, Aang pulled Appa up until they were high enough to see over the wall.

"She should be here by now," Aang whispered. Mari shook her head. They waited.

"Two minutes," Sokka muttered. As he spoke, a shadowy figure slipped over the side of the wall and leaned over the side.

"Aang, give me your hand," Katara said. She grabbed it quickly and vaulted over onto Appa's saddle just as two guards rounded the corner.

"Thank goodness," she whispered once they'd passed by. "I didn't know if you'd still be waiting."

"We wouldn't leave you," Aang said nobly.

"I know that, but I wasn't sure if you'd want to risk being seen." Katara glanced around and took a deep breath. "It's so nice out here. You can't imagine what it's like inside—"

_Oh, can't I? _Mari though, wrinkling her nose.

"…so sad," Katara continued. "The food's horrible, and so little. Nobody wants to fight back, it's like they've given up hope."

"Are you sure you're going to be all right?"

"I'll be fine."

"Good," Aang said, glancing up at one of the smoke stacks that jutted from the metal deck. "If you can hang in there until tomorrow afternoon, then I think I have a plan."

Mari glared at him. _Really? Another plan? I mean, I know you guys like to think out of the box and stuff but…the way you're grinning tells me this is really dangerous. Stop grinning like that, Aang._

"Mari, I have a request."

Hm. Strange—Aang didn't make requests of the quiet girl all that often.

"I want you to go back in with Katara."

_No._

"I want you to keep an eye on her and give her a hand with the prisoners. You're good at ticking Sokka off…just do the same thing with these guys, mmkay?"

Mari shook her head vigorously. She'd been in these Fire Soldier prisons before. She knew. She wished she didn't, but she knew.

"There are already so many Earth Benders in there that they won't even notice one more person wandering around. Here—" Aang tossed Mari a filthy blanket. "Wear that. They won't be able to tell you apart from anybody else." He leaned forward and whispered something in Mari's ear. She bit her lip, but nodded her consent. He may have been just a kid, but he was also the Avatar—an Avatar with a plan that might just work.

They waited for another guard to pass and then, silent as the darkness, Katara and Mari slipped over the wall and into prison.

xXx

Mari sat huddled in a corner, wrapped in her dirt-filled, stinking blanket, and swore to herself that she would never pull a stunt like this ever again. Not even if Aang asked her politely. Or if there was money involved. Well, that was a lie. It depended on how much money was offered—the gang had been running just an eensy weensy bit low on funds lately.

A really big dude in a torn shirt and cutoff pants stomped by. He looked angry.

Katara pattered after him, shouting something about having strength and fighting as a people… united we stand and all that. She'd been spouting fluff all morning to the other prisoners, and so far they'd just laughed and told her that she was a silly girl—there was no escape, why would she even consider such a thing?—or worse, ignored her like the big guy had been doing.

Mari hid a smile. Katara was so determined. She just couldn't see what these people had been through—they'd been stripped of power, dignity, and name—guards referred to the prisoners by numbers—as well as family, decent clothing and food, and even the right to privacy. They were broken, shattered bits of the people that they had once been. If they ever healed…well, like any other broken thing, there would be hints, scars from what the people had been through. They would never forget the humiliation and pain that had occurred on this ship. If Katara thought she could change these men's hearts with one or two encouraging speeches… well, then, she was a very silly girl indeed.

But then, silly was what had brought Mari alive again. Perhaps things weren't as futile as they seemed. What was it that Katara kept telling Aang when he felt down? Something about hope always being there…


	10. In Which Hope Is Found

_A/N_: _So…this doesn't have anything to do with the fic, but…I was watching Sixteen Candles yesterday—this isn't something I get to do often, considering the fact that I've got young, impressionable siblings everywhere- and practically the whole movie is screaming "BOOM, I'M FROM THE EIGHTIES! TAKE THIS, INNOCENCE! MUAHAHAHA!"— and now I kind of hate Molly Ringwald for being so freaking cool. *shakes fist angrily* DARN YOU, MOLLY!_

_And now that I've got THAT out of my system, we can move on to the more important, non-rambly bits…_

_I'd like to thank all of you who have favorite and reviewed, especially __**Shaybo27**__—weird speeches and sleep deprived minds are my specialty, thank you very much. I can't wait to hear more adjectives!—and __**dawnoftheceruleansky**__ for appreciating Sokka as much as I do._

_I really, really promise that I'm going to update more often. Like, I would swear on a bible if I weren't too lazy to go find one. _

**xXx**

By the time the sun had reached its highest point in the sky, Mari had had enough of sitting and enough of watching Katara run around shouting for rebellion.

Apparently, so had the warden.

Minutes earlier, he had strolled daintily out onto the balcony that overlooked the prisoner's courtyard. Mari had watched from her crummy little corner as the skinny man who bore an unfortunate resemblance to a weasel-crow leaned over the fence and smiled down at Katara with his crooked yellow teeth.

"My dear, it's time to give up," he'd said, twisting a bit of stringy hair between his fingers. "These men are all hopeless. Doomed. They will not help you because they know this. Keep making trouble and I will _teach_ you why these men know what they know."

Katara gritted her teeth and opened her mouth to say something, but the warden had already retreated back into his rooms. The prisoners said nothing, and returned to their activities—staring at walls and reminiscing about the days when they had had good dirt beneath their feet.

"No!" Katara screamed. "You're not doomed! You haven't lost just yet! What about your families? Your…your wives and your children and your friends? What about them? Don't you care anymore?"

Mari stood up—and so did someone else. Haru's father, Tyro.

"Sit down," he said. Katara's eyes filled with tears.

Mari pursed her chapped lips and dropped her blanket from her shoulders. Aang was late (surprise, surprise) and she could practically feel the bitterness in this place trying to drag her down, and that wasn't something that she would let happen again.

Mari was aware of people staring at her. It wasn't just that she was the only person in the place that had had a bath recently—although that was certainly a bonus. She looked formidable—a crazy mess. Her sapphire blue tunic and breeches billowed around her. Mari walked to Katara, who hadn't seemed to notice that Mari had dropped her disguise, and placed a hand on the girl's head. In the distance, she could hear a promising rumble.

_Good Aang._

Mari turned around to look at Tyro. He was staring at her.

A sharp, angry grin cut across her face. The man, although obviously shaken, did not move. Behind him, one of the vents burst open and from it spilled a mountain of black coals. Earth. One by one, the Earth Benders rose to their feet to get a better look.

Katara looked up at Mari, who mouthed one word.

_Fight._

"FIGHT!" Katara shouted, giving voice to Mari's will. "Now is your chance!"

The Earth Benders stared at the coal as though they had never seen something like it in their lives.

"Come on! You can do this!"

From the balcony came a cruel laugh. It chilled Mari to the bone.

"Oh, darling," the warden cackled, "These men barely even have the strength to stand, and you expect them to fight us? Put up your fantasies, sweetheart. It's time to face reality."

At that moment, Mari wanted nothing more than to wipe that smug smile off of the man's face. She bent down and picked up a good, sizable rock. As she drew back her hand to toss it, someone else's closed over her wrist.

"Let me," Haru whispered. "I bet I'm a better throw, anyway." He slid the rock from Mari's palm into his own, and bent it into several smaller pieces.

One chunk collided with the Warden's forehead. A trickle of blood ran down the man's cheek.

"Bastard," Haru huffed.

"Son!" Tyro muttered. "There are ladies here!"

The rest of the benders made short work of the prison, and the prison guards. Once they'd made up their minds to get out of their jail, there was no stopping them. Mari allowed herself a small bubble of joy as she watched Tyro and two other benders toss the warden and most of the guards into the ocean. Sometime during the battle, Aang and Sokka had arrived. The boys were enjoying themselves immensely; using a little whirlwind that Aang had bent up to send hunks of coal flying into the other firebenders.

In the end, the Earth Benders hijacked a fleet of ships, which Tyro announced they would use to take back the Earth Kingdom from the Fire Nation. Katara and Haru hugged, and talked for a little while—Mari practically had to hold Aang back—and then the Earth Benders sailed away, and Appa took to the air.

_Well,_ Mari thought as she reclined on the soft leather of the bison's saddle, _that was sort of…anticlimactic…_

"Hey!" Sokka exclaimed, brandishing a canvas bag in the air, "Who wants to check out the score I got from that warden guy's pantry?" He dumped the contents of the bag into the center of the saddle. Chunks of jerky, red apples, and a couple loafs of bread spilled out.

_Yep. Definitely anticlimactic._

**xXx**

"Ooooh," Iroh moaned as he stepped over a hunk of metal. "I see they decided to redecorate."

"Shut up, uncle. This is no time to joke." Zuko stomped across the balcony and looked out over some sort of holding area. Overturned tables and small piles of coal smoldered sadly from below. "We're here to answer a distress signal."

"Laughter is the best medicine…"

Zuko chose to ignore this juicy bit of wisdom. He knocked open a door that presumably led to the warden's chambers. This had been ransacked as well.

"I don't think there are any of ours on the rig," he muttered, stepping back. "Uncle, tell the men—" his foot crunched on something that definitely didn't sound like a piece of coal. Zuko bent down and picked up a black ribbon, from which dangled a blue jade medallion inscribed with swirly symbols.

"Oooooh," Iroh cooed as he peered over his nephew's shoulder.

"Will you stop _doing_ that, Uncle?" Zuko snapped, shoving the necklace into his pocket.

"No."

"Hrmmm…" Zuko stomped away.

xXx

"We have to go back," Katara shouted. "It's my mother's necklace! I need it!" she lunged for Appa's reins but Mari held her back.

"Katara, I already told you," Aang said, "We can't go back! By now the place is probably swarming with Fire Soldiers. Showing our faces there would be like… like…"

_Like asking for death,_ Mari thought, stroking Katara's hair.

"No! You don't understand! This is the last…the last thing that I have of her! I can't lose it, I promised dad! I need that necklace!"

"What you need is a good meal," Sokka muttered as he shoved a chunk of bread into his mouth. "You're so dramatic when you're hungry."

Katara wailed furiously into Mari's shoulder.

"Katara, we're going to look for your necklace," Aang promised over his shoulder. "But right now, we need to find somewhere to stay for the night. Do you think you can help us look for a place? I have to drive, and Sokka's busy eating tonight's dinner…"

Katara sniffed and wiped her nose on Mari's tunic. Ew.

"I-I think I can," she said shakily.

Mari could have sung praises to Aang right then. She'd never really been good at dealing with people crying, and besides that, the Avatar had successfully created a way to divert Katara from the reason for her tantrum.

_Bless his hundred-twelve year old little soul._

They were flying over a lush green forest by now, and the sun was setting. Katara peered blearily out over the landscape, searching for a clearing large enough to park Appa.

Mari scootched over to sit beside Sokka and wrenched an apple from his hand.

"Hey!"

Mari shrugged at him and took a bite. _Hay is for horses…_

"Um, Aang," Katara said slowly. "What's that black thing over there?" She pointed over the side. Aang glanced over.

"Woah," he coughed. "I wonder what did that." Appa swerved in the direction Katara had been pointing. "Let's go check it out."

Mari and Sokka looked at each other, and then crawled over to look at whatever Katara was pointing at.


	11. In Which Iroh Loses a Slipper

_A/N__: Oh, the fluff. I absolutely love this episode…with the panda at the end…and the acorn…and Zuko….Mmmm…. _

_Anyway, this is a long chapter. The tv episode itself was actually very inspirational to me the first time I saw it. It's one of my favorites. And also, Zuko's pretty freaking awesome in here as well. Enjoy—and I just want you to know that that review button down at the bottom is very lonely. Make it feel loved and click it. CLICK IT NOW._

_No, I'm kidding. Actually read the chapter first, please. And THEN click it. That would be nice. Here, I'll stop babbling now. _

**xXx**

"Miss, are you all right?" A woman in a worn dress crouched down beside Mari. "You look ill."

Mari shook her head and tried not to look as though she wanted to vomit—which, of course, she did. She had, ever since Aang had landed Appa on that black, ugly stretch of burnt land. It had made her remember.

Mari hated her memories.

The woman laid a hand on Mari's shoulder and squeezed it comfortingly. From behind her, a dirty little girl with wild hair and bright, warm, brown eyes peered at Mari while she clutched at her mother's skirts.

"She's very scared, mama," the little girl said. "Scareder than we are."

Mari managed a wan smile at the little girl and shook her head again.

_Darn kids,_ she thought. _Stop being so observant._

"This is my daughter, Kana," the woman patted the girl's head. "Go fetch this lady some water, will you hon?"

Kana stuck out her tongue at Mari and dashed off to the well around the back of the beat up town hall.

"You rest here," the woman smiled. "We're so happy you came."

Next to Mari, Sokka gave a snort in his sleep. Katara rolled over in her bed roll and Aang muttered something incoherent. Although it was midday and people bustled around them, the townspeople of Senlin Village had urged their group to sleep well before nightfall. They had arrived there shortly after visiting the blackness in the land, after Sokka had discovered a road. The village wasn't really much of a village any more—piles of rubble and dust stood where once houses were, stone cobbling was cracked and dug out of place, and the people who should have been smiling and happy were sad, cowering and hollow-cheeked with fear.

Once the people had learned that it was the Avatar that visited, and not some Fire Soldier in disguise, a village Elder had disclosed the reason for the sad state of habitation.

"Every night," he said, "since the Fire soldiers ravaged our lands east of here and burned our beautiful oaks, our pride and joy, to the ground, we are visited by a fearsome spirit—the Hei Bai. It is a great monster, with terrible fangs and a scream of death. During the hours of darkness, from the time the sun sets until it dawns, it destroys our livelihood, steals our food, takes our brave men…please, Avatar, Mediator of Spirit and Man...help us."

Aang hadn't given it a second thought. He'd given the old man that impish grin of his, and Mari had known then that all hope of convincing him to fly far away from this godforsaken place was dashed, then and there.

The village people had decided that Aang and his "lovely, wonderful companions" would need a full night's sleep if they were to battle the Hei Bai that night, and had created a sort of nest in the corner of the town hall where the gang was now situated. Momo was curled up beside Mari, every so often issuing a high-pitched tik-tik-tikking sound that Mari decided must have been sort of a purr. Appa was outside, probably being terrorized by the children or having large amounts of hay piled before his nose.

Mari hadn't been able to sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, she could see the black landscape east of Senlin, and then the landscape would begin to blur into a very different landscape, just as black, but still smoking and stinking of blood and death.

She was to have no escape from the past today.

Mari stared at the opposite wall and let her hand rest on Momo's warm, furry body. Sometime a few minutes later, Kana brought Mari a chipped wooden bowl filled to the brim with cool, clear water. Mari took it and, under the little girl's watchful eye, drank it dry. Kana ran back with the bowl and again brought it back brimming with water, but this time knelt in front of Mari and stared while Mari sipped politely at the liquid.

Finally, Mari set it down next to Momo, who smelled the fresh water and shifted his weight just enough to lap comfortably at the bowl without expending too much effort. Mari stared back at the little girl.

_What,_ she thought, _do you want?_

Kana smiled and reached one small hand out to touch Mari's larger, rougher one.

"You don't talk, do you?" Kana asked suddenly. Surprised, Mari jerked her hand away. Kana frowned. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "Mama told me not to be rude, but I just _want to know._ Why don't you talk like me?"

Mari held Kana's gaze, and slowly shook her head.

_Questions won't get you anywhere with me, girl. Go play with the Bison or learn to braid your mama's hair._ Beneath the ribbon around Mari's neck, her scar throbbed—not painfully, but enough to remind Mari of what was there.

"Okay," Kana chirped. "I'll not ask that any more. Can I pet the lemur?" she pointed at Momo, who gave a horrified squeal. He didn't trust children.

**xXx**

"WHY," Zuko shouted, "ARE YOU NAKED?" he covered his eyes with one hand.

Iroh turned his head to one side. "Oh," he pouted. "Don't be such a baby."

"I'M NOT BEING A BABY. YOU, however, ARE DRESSED LIKE ONE." Zuko blinked his eyes furiously. He was overcome by a fear that what he had just seen could never be unseen. All he'd wanted to do was bring Iroh back to the ship so that they could cast off in search of the Avatar once again.

Instead, he'd found the old man strutting around a steaming tidal pool wearing nothing but his birthday suit.

It was not a pleasant sight.

Iroh shrugged and lowered himself back into his self-heated steam bath. "I don't know about you, boy, but I rather enjoy the freedom that comes with—"

"SHUT UP!" Zuko shouted. _No more,_ he begged the gods. _I'm already scarred enough as it is! _

Sadly, Zuko was too freaked out to appreciate the irony of that thought.

"I suppose you're not going to join me then?"

"Never, in a million years…" Zuko took a deep breath. "Just—just be back to the ship in half an hour. If you're not there, I swear we'll leave you." He stomped away, his top-knot swinging about furiously as he walked.

Iroh sank deeper into his bath and looked up at the sky. "Well," he said. "Thank goodness he made that quick. Now I can finally relax…"

**xXx**

It turned out that everything the Elder had told Aang about the Hei Bai was true. It was big. It was a monster. It had fangs, and it liked to destroy stuff.

The one thing the Elder hadn't mentioned?

The Hei Bai liked to destroy things with energy blasts. From its mouth.

Mari sighed from where she sat peeping through a gap in the walls of the village hall. Aang wasn't doing so well out there—he hadn't made a mark on the monster, and had so far spent the majority of his time using his Air Bending to bounce away from the energy blasts emitted by the beast. Occasionally, over all the ruckus, Mari could hear Aang trying to shout sense into the monster.

_Silly boy, _she sighed. _Even if it had once been able to understand you, all that is gone now._ The cries that came from the creature were loud, lunatic howls that somehow seemed lonely and pained.

Not so to Sokka, however.

Wielding his boomerang high, Sokka made for the door. "Don't worry Aang," he cried. "We'll help you!" He slid out the door before Katara or Mari could utter any sort of protest.

"Mari," Kana asked from where she'd been sitting beside them for hours, cuddling Momo, who had long since resigned himself to his fate, "Sokka's a crazy man."

_Yes,_ Mari thought, grimacing as she watched the beast heft Sokka up in its hands. _Yes he is._

**xXx**

It was definitely more than half an hour later when Iroh woke to a little woodland creature singing a song to him from the edge of his pool.

"Hm," Iroh smiled. "What beautiful noise you make, my rodent. I think my nephew would hate you very much."

The old man looked up at the setting sun and smiled. "He has probably left me by now. Ah, well. It was a very sweet nap. Perhaps now I will be able to find a decent tea-house to drink in without being pestered."

"I'm afraid that fantasy's not going to come true any time soon," said the Earth Kingdom soldier that had been leaning up against a tree while he watched Iroh nap for the better part of an hour. He snapped his fingers and his ten soldier companions emerged from the tree line. "You're going to have to come with us, General."

"You got some 'splainin' to do," one of the other soldiers tittered.

Iroh rolled his eyes.

Lovely.

**xXx**

Zuko glared at the mountainous hill which had formerly served as his Uncle's bathing place.

"Earth Benders," he muttered.

As if his uncle hadn't already screwed up his schedule enough.

**xXx**

The sun rose. With it, there came…

Nothing.

There was no sign of the beast, or Sokka, or Aang. There was a heck of a lot more damage to the village, but nothing more than that.

The moment the doors to the building had been opened, Katara had rushed for the gate in the hopes that Aang and her brother would return, triumphant in their battle against the Hei Bai.

Mari had followed behind her, knowing that there would be nothing but rubble and dust awaiting them. She sat with Katara and stared at the dark forest. Momo curled around her neck and tickled her nose with his tail. Katara was pale and worried, but hopeful.

"I'm sure they'll come back," she said. "I'm sure they're just resting." She'd looked at Mari.

"They have to come back, right?"

Mari frowned. It was going to be a long, terrible day.

**xXx**

A sandal. Zuko had searched all night for a sign that his uncle would be all right, and what did he get? A dirty, stinky, depressed-looking sandal that had been ground into the dirt hours before.

Ah well. At least it was something.

**xXx**

Mari stroked the ribbon around her throat. It was a nervous habit—just something she did to make sure it was still in place, or when she was worried or sad or excited or…

"It's all because of that scar," one of the older men muttered to his friends as he stirred a pot of stew. Mari's head perked up a bit. "If those Fire Soldiers had left our forest alone, they never would have awoken that beast. Instead, they burn down our trees, scar our forest land, and take the spoils for themselves…"

Mari stopped listening. She touched her ribbon again, thoughtfully. A scar—maybe that's what was wrong with the Hei Bai. Maybe it was in pain, frightened, scared… all the things that Mari had been for so long. She sat there and thought for a while, and probably would have thought some more, had Katara not tackled Mari in a ferocious bear hug.

"He's back!" Katara shrieked, wringing Mari's neck, such was the extent of her joy. "Aang's back, and he knows what to do, and he's okay and everything's going to be wonderful now!"

Aang sat down next to Mari and patted her shoulder. "Don't worry, Mar," he said seriously. "She did the same thing to me when I walked around that corner in the road."

Mari smiled.

"Now," Aang said. "I have a plan."

**xXx**

Iroh was surrounded by idiots. First, the Earth Kingdom men practically gave Iroh the tools he needed to warn Zuko, then they put themselves in a position to be oh, say, burned with the iron manacles clasped about their FIRE BENDING PRISONER'S wrists, and then—wonder of wonders—they decide to crush his hands to prevent him from Fire Bending any more.

"You know," he said tiredly, "They called me the Dragon of the West. Do you know how dragons create fire?"

"Shut up," One of the soldiers carefully bent a boulder into place above Iroh's hands.

"They breathe fire. You know…with their mouths. Son, this isn't going to stop me from kicking your hind end."

"Be quiet, old man. Nobody's listening." The soldier raised his fists, and—

There was a quick blur of movement from Iroh's peripheral vision and the rock above Iroh's hands dropped to the ground three feet away.

"Hello, Prince Zuko," Iroh smiled with relief as Zuko smashed the chains that bound his uncle with one fell kick. "Beautiful form, my boy."

"Thank you, Uncle," Zuko growled. "Now…let's show these men just who they messed with."

"And afterwards, will you take me to a good tea house?"

"Uncle—"

"Please? I was abducted by ruffians and I was manhandled and I'm very thirsty."

Zuko groaned. "Fine. But not an expensive one." He turned to the Earth Kingdom soldiers. "Let's get this over with quickly, shall we?"

**xXx**

The Hei Bai looked at the acorns in Aang's hands.

"You see," the Avatar explained, "They'll grow back. They might even be growing back right now. All they need is a little time." He held one out to the Hei Bai. "It might look horrible right now, but it can't be this bad forever, Mr. Hei Bai, sir. My teacher, Monk Gyatso, once taught me that it is always darkest before the sun rises, but it is inevitable that the sun will come and light a path to better days. This forest will be happy again. The birds will sing, and the animals will come back and you won't be alone any more. These people here will help you grow your trees and become even better than you used to be. So please… stop destroying their home like the Fire Nation destroyed yours."

The Hei Bai reached forward and plucked the acorn from Aang's fingers with its own long, spidery ones. It cradled it in its palm like one would cradle a newborn baby and moaned its grief to the sky. At once, the monster seemed to shrink down and grow sideways. It became…fluffier. The black and white markings remained, but the thing's fangs became blunted and its eyes lost their wild gaze. It roared something that seemed to say "thank you and I'm sorry," at the same time.

And then the Hei Bai turned and lumbered away, still cradling its acorn but leaving behind Sokka and several other villagers that it had taken.

Aang brushed his hands together and sauntered back towards the town hall, with Sokka wandering confusedly behind him.

"All right, guys," Aang grinned as the villagers, Katara and Mari poured out of the town hall. "Next stop, the Fire Nation."

Sokka shook off his confusion. "Aang, you realize we're probably gonna die, right?"

"Nah," Aang grinned. "We'll be fine."

Katara leaned forward. "And if we need bait to distract the Fire Soldiers, we know exactly who to use."

Sokka frowned. "Who?"

Mari flicked his cheek. _You, idiot._

"Oh. OH! Hey, that's not very nice, you guys. I was just kidnapped by a deranged spirit monster panda thing and all you have to say to me is "we'll use you as bait next time we're in trouble?""

"Basically…yeah."

Mari felt a tug on one of her sleeves. She turned around and saw Kana looking up at her with a dopey grin on her face.

"Here's your lemur," Kana held up Momo who leapt to Mari's shoulder and then to Aang's at once. "He's very nice. Are you leaving?" she asked Mari.

Mari nodded.

"Okay. I know you have to, because he's the Avatar and you guys have to save the world. But I like you. So you have to visit the next time you come, okay? I promise you guys won't get attacked by the Hei Bai any more, and next time we'll have a nice house for you to stay in, and maybe you'll be ready to talk, huh? Because I'd like that. I'd like to hear your voice." Kana lunged forward and gave Mari a hug. "I bet it's really pretty, because you're pretty. But not your hair. It's too short."

_Is not,_ Mari thought. She patted Kana's head. _But I'll visit, kid. I promise._


End file.
